tekom-Jahrestagung 2012 - ActiveDoc

Professionelles Schreiben / Technical Authoring
TA 6
Presentation
The Usability of Layout:
Advanced Visual Editing
Leah Guren, Cow TC, Karmiel, Israel
The Usability Argument
The current trend towards content-only strategies, single sourcing,
DITA, and one-button publishing has led to a separation of content and
design. These strategies have compelling business cases, but they have
led to a large step backwards in documentation usability. This is because
design is now out of the hands of the technical communicators, and is
often controlled by people who are not trained in the area of documentation
usability.
Usability testing of product documentation often reveals the cost of
poor design and layout. Users have trouble locating information or they
fail to correctly identify the information they are looking for. They misunderstand
visual cues about the relationships and hierarchies on the
page. They don’t read⎯they scan⎯and therefore miss the subtle design
that may be more appropriate for other types of writing.
In short, all technical communicators must understand the basic design
concepts as they relate to usability.
Design Concepts: PARCH
The mnemonic PARCH stands for Proximity, Alignment, Repetition,
Contrast, and Hierarchies.
−−
Proximity: Things that are close together on the page have an implied
relationship. This is not just horizontal placement, but vertical placement,
as well.
−−
Alignment: Things need to line up based on logical, meaningful
plumb lines. When plumb lines are fractionally off or are not properly
reused, the resultant layout looks messy and unprofessional. Worse, it
creates confusion over the relationships of elements on the page.
−−
Repetition: Very much like the golden rule of consistency in writing,
repetition means that page design should be consistent. Elements of
the same meaning or level should look the same. Placement and location
should be the same. For example, consistently placing a shaded
example box at the bottom of the page facilities access.
−−
Contrast: The opposite of repetition, contrast implies that we must
use appropriate techniques to focus the reader’s attention. For example,
hazards broken out of text and marked with an icon; a preferred
setting in a table appearing in bold or with a thicker border around
the cell; the critical concept in a graphic highlighted with some sort of
callout or annotation.
−−
Hierarchies: A key way that readers understand flow is through levels
of headings and indents. Too many levels, plus no visual distinction
between them, create a visual mixed message for readers.
396
tekom-Jahrestagung 2012