This statement gives credit to those of the technical communication world which does not happened as often as should. Even though these principles are not set in stone, they give the basics from personal experience, and experience is the best key of learning. One is more prone to listening to one from experience, that may even be considered an expert, than one that is considered practicing or rookie so to say.

I too agree with others, as these are all important questions to ask when designing a site. These questions help with how and what ways to convey information. They also help first timers who lack experience, or knowledge.

All things change in time, however foundation and principles usually persist. There are still elements and structures that we hold desigers to, in the same way there are still basic elements that one may use in writing a research paper, making sure the margins are aligned, and font is the same. Or even in scientific subject, there are still several ways to conduct an experiment but in all experiments there is foundation in (1) forming a question; (2) Doing research; and then (3) forming a hypothesis. However, the point is that there is basic foundations o structure in all subjects that one should abide by.

This is very imporant history to note. This factual evidence relates to one of the main objectives we learned at the beginning of the semester, and even more working with my clients for Georgia Childcare Association. When handling something for public view you have to realize, "It is not about you, IT IS ABOUT THE AUDIENCE!!!"

Conveying the big picture is always important. While all the elements may connect, the big picture may say it all in one. This idea too, helps the designer control the end users focus. I also like the idea of harmony mentioned, while making small elements zoom into the large picture. This can be helpful in puzzled pictures, or connecting wardrobe for clothing stores, and much more.

Hierarchy is very important. A title grabs attention, so it should generally be more visible, with a bigger and bolder font. A title gives important to messages. The more important titles should be bigger and bolder , and the subtitles are generally less bigger and bolder. For example, this is why the front page news title is usually the biggest and boldest than all the other titles on the paper.

Reitterating the fact that white space can be very unattractive, using the white space in a structured manner helps. By adding structure to white space, it helps group content better, but this can be very tricky if you are new to designing. Making sure page margins, and breaks are consistent helps in appearance, and conveying of importance. This maybe why 1 inch margins are formal in writing college papers. Hint. Hint.

I too agree with this statement. I do not like adding too much content to fill white space. Although white space is very unattractive adding too much content to the white space can create a disarray for the reader. Adding much to white space can cause complex to reading and navigating on the website for the end user.

This is basic elements that exist in may other subjects. A professor may not even read your work if it does not appear neat, a job application may not even be considered just because it wasn't neat. Neatness brings attraction, and appeals to persons better.

I really like this tip !!! This tip helps you balance out how you would like the reader to respond to certain things. In addition, it also gives the designer a basic set up, of how to convey the most important elements of their site. Appealing to the audience, and getting them to focus on what you want can help businesses push new items, or grab attention to the most important news.

An important note to take!!! While grids create structure and ensure neatness, they help end users relate and connect content better. Grids help the visual learner, putting things in order, and position.

Creating a strong visual was one of the very first objectives we faced in working in designing the GCCA website. The GCCA website lacked a lot of visual with repeatative content all on different pages. Not only are visuals important but they also give the reader a reference to material that is on the web page. The visual gives importance to the content expressed. The quality of pictures, also express the importance of the content.

Grids are certainly helpful when it comes to balancing pages. Grids give a numerical layout on where things are landed at on a webpage. Grids offer proper aligns and ensure neatness that makes it better for the end user.

This too, is something I also learned working with designing the new GCCA website. Trial and error were main steps that were taken for this project.I too, do not encourage free form methodology. Templates and computer based designs work well as they are prefixed in design and structure.

Reitterating the idea of neatness and appearance of website design lays a foundation for website designers. Creating balanced pages helps users navigate and implore websites better. Balancing pages is top priority for website appearance, when you balance pages content is better grasped and noticed.

Workig with the GCCA website this was a very important element for designing a website. Making sure that the pictures are aligned, same size, and of the same good quality are surely important. Principles for laying a website gives the basic foundations. Surely, some individuals freestyle when it come to designing websites, however, when abiding by the principles of website design it makes readability easier for the audience/ end user.

This excerpt reminds me of emoticons and emojis. On different monitors the emoticons and emojis literally convey different expressions to the viewers and readers. On Apple products the emoticon that is expressing what can be conveyed as happiness on android and other brands of products that same emoticon is expressed as what would be sought out as an angry expression. This is important to remember when considering using emoticons and other icons because their intentional use may be misconstrued conveying a very different message.

Figure 8 advises to use visuals rather than text. An example of this would be to use charts to display statistics or values of money rather than sentences full of numbers. This will not intimidate the viewers and readers. Allowing them to completely understand what the writer is intending to convey.

Thinking back to the service learning project... I created a Mailchimp tutorial guide but typed it using the font Comic Sans. This text was readable but, if I were to have done my research I would have found that this font is not a good one to use at all for professional documents. This has been recorded from other professionals in the past and this particular information is easily accessible.

This has been discussed many times when working on site based assignments in class this semester. This is helpful information because as anyone now a day's with any type of site is somewhat of a technical writer and this information is important when including large blocks of text. Most people today do not have that much time on their hands to read large blocks of text. So taking that into consideration will allow a writer to save not only their time but maximize their viewer/readers experience.

This is a branch of an earlier mentioned issue of choosing images that as clear as possible and can not interpreted as anything else. Using icons can be tricky in itself, but there is not reason to "reinvent the wheel" when choosing an icon to represent something. It might be more visually appealing or a clever, but it could perceive as something else. For example, a icon of a letter on a screen or the "@" symbol has been universally acknowledged as two icons that indicate email. But if you try to create another icon to represent email, then the audience might be looking for the universally acknowledged icon and miss the one that is new to them. Using icons that everyone knows and acknowledges ensures that your website is easily navigable.

Using headings and subheading is something I never considered until I took a class taught by Dr. Gu. He encourages all students use subheadings when writing long memos or papers. As a producer of text, it was very helpful to write under subheadings to keep the information relevant to the subheading. Now I seek out subheadings because they make things easier to read especially longer articles.

I think that bold sentences can be a good way to distinguish important information like in this article by the Huffington Post. Because it's a top 10 tips list, the actual tips are in bold while the secondary information explaining the information is normal face. So while we should use bold specifically sparingly, I would argue that it is a great way to identify the pertinent information in a wordy article.

I found this sentence interesting because in a past classroom lecture we learned about how words, pictures or even symbols can be grouped in such a way that they can convey a single message. When discussing creating the info graphic just before election time we saw perfect example of how this statement can be described and explained.

This video from graphic designer Karen Kavett really helped me understand some of the basic typography vocabulary and principles.

This is so true nowadays. A lot of different websites from Twitter to dating apps now limit the amount of characters because people just don't read continuous text anymore. Although it was contested, I think that unless people are looking for information specifically, we mostly do "skim" on the internet, especially on social media which has become a source of news for many American adults.

This seems a little like common sense. If there is 100 bunnies and one of them is black, that bunny will attract the eye. If you have something that you want people to see on your website, create visual contrast. The eye will be drawn to it naturally.

Being clear and concise about what the designer in trying to say and what the purpose of the website is will help with this. When I see something like this on a website, it makes me feel as if the content creator doesn't know what exactly is important to them to tell me. Therefore, I don't know what I should take away from that content. The pertinent information be the biggest and eye catching and easily found, and all relevant but not as important information should be relatively smaller, but not hidden.

This is one of the most helpful tips that I've learned in my studies of how to design. The brain wants to make sense of the things that you see; it wants to be able to flow through a webpage with ease. Keeping this in mind can allow a more effective website that is easy to navigate. Having a clutter website that has lots of unorganized information can be really overwhelming to the user. Like a well written paper, a website has to make sense throughout and flow with ease through different aspects.

I find this to be very helpful tip. Oftentimes, I will look at something that I know very well to be a particular thing, but when I ask someone to look at, it's interpreted as something different. For example, my elementary school mascot was a rocket. I never thought to be or look like anything other than a rocket. But when I returned to the school as a teenager with someone who never went to my elementary school, they saw it as something more phallic.

Designers have to be clear to the point of exhaustion, especially with visual media. Fonts, pictures, and logos can be interpreted into things that might prove inappropriate to your website. Make sure that there is no contest to things on your webpage.

"The following guidelines are intended to assist Web designers, authors, and editors in their efforts to creat Web pages that effectively reveal--rather than obscure or confuse--the information they are trying to present."

In reading this article and being in this class and Digital Writing and Publishing, I realize, now more than ever, that understanding rhetoric is vital in creating anything on the Web. With such grand audience, designers have to have so sort of background in effectively designing and writing in order to provide an effective website for anyone who might happen upon it. This sentence is the definition of a rhetorical discourse. This proves that studying rhetoric can prove useful in lots of fields, contrary to belief.

In 1.1. it discusses making sure that the visual elements displayed are large enough to be seen and interpreted. While working on the service learning client packet this was heavily discussed when making suggestions for the site update for LOLC. On that particular webpage we took notice that the visual elements being the pictures. The photos throughout this site were all stock photos. In relation to this article the stock photos are being interpreted as not personal and they don't give a genuine feel to the day care than if it were to display actual photos that were taken at the day care.

I found this important to take into consideration when beginning to create the personal profile. Accessibility is the major key to making a display screen that will differ to its pages. When creating a web page this should be remembered. As a designer you are going to want to make it so that your viewer will be able to see the display as it was originally intended to on any device or screen. The interpretation as mentioned earlier may be off.

This was discussed in class and was suggested when creating our personal profiles. I have learned that the bright backgrounds need contrasting colors so that they are not so harsh to the eye. Or even because taking into consideration that there are people with color blind disabilities so making it a color that will be visible and appealing to every eye is important when choosing a background.

This lays a foundation for digital designers. Although today, there is encouragement for freestyle designing there are still norms, and principles that designers still uphold in the digital designing field.

Audience and Rhetoric are the two multimodals we've studied this semester. It makes sense that design principles should match the audience views because those are the ones designs will appeal to.

Wow this participant really disliked the concept of CRAP principles. I am not sure if they took the term literal or found a fitting definition for the word.

This is another disadvantage of the online approach. A six year old child could do the online card sorting or someone who has no idea of the concept. Hence results may be not applicable. Spam being the number one inaccurate result caused by a computer is another uncontrollable participant.

This is one of the disadvantages of online card sorting. Things like body language and side conversation to collect more information is not present. Even though online is faster, the more personal interaction of the interview is taken out.

I concur with this statement that online processing is faster than one on one encounters. Card sorting online can be done by anyone any where, making the exercise more efficient.

The word "principle" means foundations or beginning. I can understand why the author says any specific topic that has principles in front of it mean the collections of beginning rules or the basics.

This is something to think about. This shows the unique and sometimes helpful ways designs principles can be used. For some design principles are practical and economic. For others they don't find it that useful at all.

I thought this was a clever and easy way of utilizing this method by going digital, since we talking about technical writing. Not to mention that it's accessible and more efficient for participants.

This gives us more details about the type of card sorting that was used. I have never heard of this technique before, but it seems to be similar to grouping. I like that Kimball used an open sort so as to give more control to the designers.

Kimball describes design principles as a "lore", which to me sounds like it is continuous or added knowledge. It makes me wonder if design principles as anecdotal, implicit and idiosyncratic, are used when trying to keep clients needs in mind.

This is pretty comical to me. It makes sense that, with the number of people in this study, at least one of them would make fun o the subject

this way, we know who exactly is completing the experiment and what they thought of the overall process.

I like that Kimball recognizes the pros and cons of this exercise. While face-to-face contact was preferable, having the experiment online made more sense economically and time-wise.

Educators, practicing designers, and students can all have a different outlook on the design world. This is why I like that all three groups were a part of the study. we get the most fully-received idea of what design actually is

this would bias the study

This is likely because there is overlap between some principles.

By including alls possible "design principles" those in the study have a more wide range of information

I like that they have two different stages and that they include a physical aspect of it (card sorting). This allows the subjects to have more freedom, and allows those conducting the study to have a more fully formed idea on their study.

I wonder how often this actually happens? I can see why a cut-and-dry process won't work for everyone, however it is still important that we understand this process when working with clients.

These are all questions that need to be asked in Technical Writing in order to create the best product for your employer. These questions should be something we focus on as we continue to work on our service learning projects.

i had no idea that this was an actual form of study, however it makes sense

• main idea
• i find this interesting right from the beginning because I am currently taking visual rhetoric and this relates to what we're studying in class

This is a very important as well as interesting finding about design. The fact that most of the participants put design principles and design research together shows how both feed off each other and one cannot function properly without the other.

Since these were responses were reoccurring during the survey, it helps us better understand design principles and what people who are actually in the field best define it's meaning.

The "what" questions towards design principles at the beginning of the study helped Kimball to break any type of barriers between him and those being studied.

This was helpful in getting the answers to most of the angles that KImball had wanted to go with the study. The technique allowed him to subdivide the group even further.

Although the card sorting technique Kimball described seemed like the most efficient way to perform his study, it seemed like the disadvantages outweighed the advantages in the method in that instance.

After we discover the common principles, still only half the work is done. The most effective way to categorize these raw design principles is by taking from designer, educators, and students since they may know best where each one fits.

In the short of this analysis, although many of the authentic design principles have been found, there are only a very small portion of them that are used widespread, while the rest have are unique.

I like how the author included ways in which we can find free fonts because sometimes the software you use doesn't have the font you're looking for. Kilever is very helpful.

I agree that you need to have a purpose or mission to your site, otherwise you may not know what exactly you're trying to say and your site won't flow. It is important to brainstorm and figure out your purpose before anything.

First impressions are everything these days and what you wear is important when you want to give off a certain look or personality. The same goes for fonts. People are ging to judge your site based on the color scheme, fonts, etc. and each aspect are important to your site's look. It's interesting to think about it that way because some people may not see the importance of font selection.

It's hard to believe how recent the internet was developed. I've always had access to the internet growing up, it's hard to imagine life without it. Carrying around movable metal type seems insane, but it's interesting to learn that so much can change so quickly.

The comparison of Goldilocks and the 3 bears with finding the right fonts is very accurate because testing the way the fonts look together is very important.

I like how the author uses visual modes to help readers understand which fonts Kilever is referring to. Before I saw the fonts, I was going to look them up because I didn't fully understand the worded definition. This shows how important graphics are.

It can be very difficult to choose a font because there are so many to choose from. Often we have too much information (too many fonts) that we can't sort (decide) which (font) to use. In the previous article by Williams (“Guidelines for Designing and Evaluating the Display of Information on the Web.”), I noticed that as technical writers you should not put too much information on a site. However, if you do need that information, the author suggests to direct the reader's attention to the most important. Like Williams, Kilever wants to make the font decision easier by guiding designers to choose the most important fonts without much difficulty. Kilever helps designers sort through the information to get to the most important.

Graphic Design can be difficult when choosing a font. It can be too fun. It can be too serious. It all depends on what you're trying to do with the design.Find the most appropriate font and go from there.

Difference between typeface and font Typeface: is the design of the alphabet--the shape of the letters that make up the typestyle. The letters, numbers, and symbols that make up a design of type. So when you say “Arial” or “Goudy” you're talking about a set of letters in a specific style.

Font: is the digital file that contains/describes the typeface.

from: www.will-harris.com/font_vs_typeface.html

It's interesting to learn that there are different fonts that look better on the web. It makes sense after reading, but I didn't realize so much thought was put into it.

This is exactly what we've found appropriate and effective for GCCA's website. We are using sans-serif for general information while serif will highlight more important information and headers.

These questions should also be kept in mind while designing a website or template. As we discussed in class during our presentation, GCCA is working for the children, but that doesn't mean their audience consists of children or anyone child like. It's a serious organization that deals with state funding and law making so the design must be suitable for potential members who come from a professional background. Not all graphics should include children in them. They should also show judicial officials and businessmen who all work simultaneously to make GCCA a success.

As a tech writer, you should ask yourself these questions when trying to figure out what font size is appropriate for the project you are working on. On GCCA's homepage, we decided to make sure that the font on the main picture was bold and attention grabbing because we want to focus on having our audience sign up for memberships. The rest of the info on the homepage is normal, except for headers which are bold as well.

The quote above does a great job explaining how imperative your font choices are on the overall look and feel of the website. If you get too carried away with aesthetics than you can add too much excitement to a page or the opposite effect, confusion, either way it is preventing your reader from actually being able to take in the information because of a "visual disconnect" or a design overload. Just how you can walk into a clothing store and get easily overwhelmed because it has too many trends going on at once and it's too crowded with too many different kinds of looks that you'll walk out, the same can be applied to a website. If your choice of font(s) are too much and are causing a visual disconnect, then your audience will leave before they even got a chance to read the information to retain anything from the website. It might also cause them to not want to return to the site because of some visual disconnect PTSD. In simple terms, less is more and make sure it's cohesive with the overall tone of the company.

Again, continuing the conversation about what fonts are appropriate for GCCA's website, it's true that certain fonts have an undertone to them and they influence or stimulate certain feelings in your readers. If the organization that you work for is more on the artsy side, than perhaps that can give you some leeway to play with script and display fonts. But for the more serious businesses like law or medical offices, I would definitely stick to simple serif text. There's a time and a place to be the center of attention by being weird and eclectic, but your client's font (in my case GCCA) isn't one of them.

Yes! I like this analogy a lot! This goes back to what I was saying about how I wouldn't choose script or display fonts for GCCA's website because it's inappropriate. This is a serious organization that works hard to gain legal rights and government funding for childcare facilities. They cannot be turning in legal forms or own a website with frilly fonts because that's not going to help them to be taken seriously.

This font also has an aesthetic that I would stay away from when it comes to GCCA's website. Again, it just doesn't set the right tone and takes away from the ethos and logos that this organization is trying to convey. I think the best options here would be a combination of serif and san-serif because they're both more involved in the "universal design" in which GCCA isn't trying to have an artsy website, but more a site where information is easily accessible and aesthetics don't take away from the content.

Script font reminds me of Pinterest worthy thank you notes or cute headers for personal blogs or online boutiques. I wouldn't use this font specifically on GCCA's website because it doesn't set the right tone for the type of information we are dealing with. GCCA has very important state juridical matter and also legal terms, business information, etc that are all serious. Like we talked about during our presentation in class, although they deal with children, it's still a very serious organization and everything must have a professional look and feel to it and script doesn't do it here.

As a technical writer, you must use a variety of fonts in order to stimulate your audience. You want to be able to help them distinguish between what certain information is more important than others. For the information that is general and isn't imperative nor irrelevant, you want to stick to a font that has a neutral undertone and serifs are great for that.

I can apply this article to my service learning project with GCCA because using a variety of fonts can attract readers attention to important information. When designing a website. it's imperative that we highlight certain information by changing the font in order to make the reader know that some information is more important than others, like for example GCCA's mission statement on the homepage in serif font.

You should ask yourself this question all the time when you are typing something important or making a design. Does the style or font go with the purpose of the design? What kind of font would combine well with the design? These are the basic questions that you should be asking yourself when you are looking for a font for the design. You don't want a font that doesn't go well with your design. First, it would not only look good when you see it, but it would also not look good when other people are looking at it. Fonts are a very important part in making the design look good.

It is good to know the definition of both of these words. A typeface would be the style that you choose to type something up while, a font would be the particular size of that style like, 12 or 14 point. To me, it seems like a font is just like a part of typeface. You first need to choose a typeface in order to figure out what kind of size or font you would like it.

Pictures help to show an example relating to the text. Sometimes people may not understand a text. Sometimes people can explain something better in a picture. When necessary put a picture (4.4)

The author says that we should only use images on our site if they relate to the information you are providing. I agree. This is funny because I am looking back to the time when everyone was on Myspace and they would decorate their sites with any and everything. The contrast from colorful Myspace to the basic default white background of Facebook was shocking to me at first. I wondered why everyone switched over, but I realized it was easier. No one had the time to constantly decorate and design their sites. No one had the time to sort through a person's Myspace page because a lot of them were hard to sort through and unorganized. So Facebook's simple design helps us as readers.

The author says that type in all uppercase and non-uniform spacing between words decreases reading speed. That's interesting because most novels are justified to where the text aligns both left and right. I am assuming that this issue applies mainly to online sites.

Growing up, we would often use any and all texts that were funky and pretty. Now it seems that basic fonts are the best way to go. Readability is the most important when you are looking to show an audience.

The author mentions that sites should either be white or light blue. I realized that most sites with a lot of traffic usually have a white background. All text books, novels, etc. usually have a white background.

The color, position, size, isolation, complexity and tonal contrast are all major aspects in guiding the reader to the most important information. These days, there is so much information to sort through, readers don't want to sort through irrelevant sites.

The author of this article is trying to inform potential site designers how to improve the effectiveness of their website. The author goes over legibility, arrangement of elements, typography, visuals, icons, and animation.

And Williams gives specific examples of effective and ineffective website designs.

Spatial arrangement can affect how a reader may group information together. Group items by their color or by grid lines. If you do not separate some information by a good amount of space or a line, the reader may become confused. The reader may also group similar colors together because they may think they relate.

"Design, in its most simple sense, is an attempt to visually convey the logical, functional, or natural relationship that exist among the elements in an information display."

Williams is absolutely right in that the viewer will often look at the organization of a page before they go to read it. If the page isn't visually appealing the reader won't be inclined to keep reading. The reader will assume that the content is too complicated to understand.

The author goes on to say that "Good design reveals structure..." The reader needs to be able to follow the information and they don't want to have to struggle to understand the content.

Williams mentions that "the characteristics...to be of interest to the site visitor are so small that the picture is virtually useless." I think that a lot of people put an almost irrelevant item/picture/text on a site. The item usually doesn't have a purpose, so I never understand why someone would use the item. Information on a site should be related to the topic, otherwise the reader may leave the site.

UD is setting everyone up for failure, absolutely! No one is the same and every disability is a particular case so we need to focus on accommodating and alleviating as many of these cases as possible which would be far more productive and effective than actually trying to generalize the whole population and creating a far too generic design that no one will abide by in the end.

It just goes back to your English class where your teachers talks about how specification and certain details are what's going to make your work stand out or it's going to make all the difference. Well the same goes for tech writing for the disabled because the more detail orientated we get with trying to help with as many specific cases as possible, the more advance or technology/work will become. We need to bring attention to the particular and quit this universal notion that isn't really best for anyone.

If tech writers were given the chance to work with an individual with specific needs or a disability, than it definitely would change the mind of the writer or at least make them take into consideration what things they could do to help those with disabilities whether it's adding audio or using bolder colors. The extra effort needs to be made.

I agree with this paragraph because there is no such thing as a UD because it just cannot help everyone with as many specific disabilities as there are out there in the world. It's definitely an idea and more like a process, but it also seems like it's not going to go anywhere because people with disabilities need specific technology for their individual cases. There is not solution with a "one size fits all" notion attached to it. You're never going to meet everyone's needs but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help accommodate as many specific cases as possible.

Those with disabilities didn't ask for their burdens and much less want help all of the time. They want to be able to be independent and produce a life for themselves like any other individual around them. It's unfortunate that public funding has been restricted and hasn't allowed for more research into developing more advance technology for those with disabilities.

Focusing on a design that is far too broad and tries to cover far too many types of people is eventually going to do quite the opposite and leave a lot of people with specific types of disabilities out. Disabilities aren't all the same and most of them are complex or have more issues on top of them. Generalizing all disabilities into one universal design isn't effective. We need to be able to find a way to modify or design for each particular case.

This paragraph was interesting to me because I'm constantly hearing from the older generation how the "gold old days" with pen and paper were far more benificial than the technology that is being used today. As a tech writer and English major, I have no problem sitting down with a pencil and paper and jotting down my ideas. There's a nostalgic feeling behind it that brings me back to my pubic education days. But it's important to take into consideration those with disabilities who cannot hold a pencil or find trouble writing on paper whether they are blind, have lost an arm, etc. Technology is here to assist them and UD isn't specific enough to make that possible.

This quote is so true because at some point in our lives, whether we are losing our sight to old age or become ill and cannot walk, we will acquire some form of a disability and only then will you realize how important it is to have a specific resolution for it.

UD is a myth. Fact. The idea of creating this broad and general tech world where needs of those who are disabled are only met by the tip of the iceberg and those with far more complex disabilities are still left out. Again, a "one size fits all" kind of technological world isn't ideal for anyone because we all have some kind of disability at one point or another in our lives that should be alleviated by technology. At the end of the day, it's main purpose is to assist.

This article is mainly trying to prove how universal design isn't exactly practical or achievable. Though people with disabilities have every right to access the same information or resources like the rest of us, they are different and those differences hinder them from being able to have easy access. The idea of creating a technological world where everyone is accessing information the same way. It's impossible! One of the authors, Rick, is disabled himself and goes on to state how dysfunctional a lot of universal design is because it's too general and broad and doesn't really help anyone really. There should be programs or technology within UD to meet the specific needs stemming from a specific disability.

This passage was quite interesting since it seems that with every advance in technology there is a need for some to hearken back to the "good 'ol days". For those who are not white men without disabilities, those days weren't really all that good.

The "calls to re-embrace physical books, pens, and paper" may seem normal to me, but to someone who cannot see or a veteran without any hands, using a pen and paper because that's what your grandfather used as a correspondent in French Indochina doesn't really help. According to Rick there is a dispute between the efficacy of using hand written notes and digital notes. To me those who would want to make hand written notes a form of best practice are not thinking about audiences with disabilities. Similar to the Schryer article, the notes that are taken may be read or used for research by someone who wasn't the original author. Notes that are taken with a pen and pad will automatically be unusable to the blind. Someone who is blind would be able to use a voice recorder to take in the same information without losing any of the information in the process. That of course can depend on the content they are recording.

In my opinion, it seems as though education is moving further and further away from traditional books and paper as well. Newspapers put their content online and publishers can put novels on a Kindle. By doing this, newspapers and traditional publishers, while moving away from a traditional form of information consumption are also opening themselves up to other audiences that could be impaired. Fonts can be made bigger and words can be read aloud, improving the reading experience for those with bad vision or those with no vision at all.

Universal design is such a great idea, but I also think it is way harder to achieve than we think. Nonetheless, it's important that tech writers start to develop content having the idea of universal design in mind and trying to meet as many needs as possible. For example, providing videos for the deaf and hearing aids for the blind.

Universal design is not to specifically have those with disabilities specifically in mind, but to design with the idea of all products and environment can be usable to as many people as possible. This is such a challenge because "one size fits all" rarely works for as many people as it's intended to reach, but yet it's a start to help those who need assistance. After all, technology is here to assist.

Because technology is a huge part of our lives, we tend to confuse it as "natural" or becoming apart of us. But we need to separate ourselves from technology for a second and remind ourselves that it isn't natural and that it's sole purpose at the end of the day is to assist. There is so much work that goes into technology and tech writing in order for it to run smoothly and be structured in a way that we subconsciously confuse with nature. Somehow, the trick here is to get technology to become natural for those with disabilities... but how? To be determined...

This quote above is so on point because it's true that as technical writers you deal with a lot of artificial content that needs to be modified in a way that become so easy to access, sort of like second nature to your audience. They feel like it's an easy breezy almost natural experience to browse your site or easily skim through a manual, but it's only because a tech writer applied his talents in order for it to seem that way.

This is pretty genius! Although I am confused how exactly they will be able to click on the GIF, but nonetheless it's a pretty impressive code solution. Tech savvy blind people should have every right to be able to skip around content and have easy accessibility throughout sites as anyone else does.

I'm confused why they didn't feel the need to include audio? I know accommodating for every disability out there is tedious and difficult, but being blind and or deaf are both very common disabilities that should both be addressed. Maybe Williams could have elaborated why they didn't include audio..

Why is that? We are so far advanced as a society but we can't seem to find solutions for those with disabilities?

The visually impaired should be able to easily access a oral setting that will help them navigate through the site easier. I know that companies don't want to make this an option because adding on resources also adds on expenses and stress that they don't deem necessary, but we as technical writers should do our best to have our client understand the importance of catering to those few with disabilities who have the potential to make a huge difference.

I agree with this statement. I think it's definitely easier and cost effective to generalize the execution of information in a way that "one size fits all" but it definitely excludes a majority of people that need to be taken into consideration. Those with disabilities should not be excluded because of a monetary excuse or because it's too much work to spend the extra time to make the modifications that would help this particular group of people out.

Williams is saying that the more technical and engineering side of technical writing has advanced more in helping those with disabilities than the actual writers. I think it's more difficult for the writer to achieve content that alleviates all of these disabilities. I don't think they've neglected it, but they definitely have a more tedious task than software programmers who work on the back side of things while it's the front side that actually gets presented and needs to execute the content in the appropriate manner.

I think it's important as a tech writer to also consider people in your audience who have disabilities and cannot easily navigate or find the content on a site because they're blind, can't see colors, deaf, etc.

I know it's difficult to accommodate to everyone's needs, but it's important to acknowledge those with disabilities and try our best to figure out ways to allow them to not miss out on vital content.

I agree with Williams that in the future, digital equality will become more important as more of our world becomes digital. The withholding of funds has historically been a powerful tactic of the federal government to carry out it's directives both nationally and internationally. If a company is not compliant with the current federal laws, they should not be entitled to any federal funds.

This is also interesting since this quote bleeds into a similar field which is proposal and grant writing. We could write a brilliant proposal but if there is not enough content that is accessible to the blind, the funding could be withheld. As a proposal writer that has read this article, my mind should already be thinking about ways to include every audience, including for this example, the blind.

Even a non profit, say the Center for Civic Innovation for example, may have to comply with federal guidelines that protect people with disabilities from being left out of the current digital age. If I was a head of a non-profit, I think working towards this goal of digital inclusivity looks better when the work is pro-active and not reactive. Instead of changing because of a lawsuit, change should be brought on out of a genuine desire to help. Of course being the first to do something always helps garner a bit of positive press. In the capitalist business world, being the first always helps garner more profit.

This particular quote is noteworthy for a few reasons. One of the reasons is when Ong writes, "Technologies are artificial, but artificiality is natural to humans". Technology is artificial in that it is created by humans, but not of humans. This gets even more interesting if you begin to apply that to current advances in virtual reality. As technical writers we are making artificial and sometimes unnatural processes easier and more friendly, or natural.

Writing was not a natural form of communication for many western cultures. The Vikings for example rarely kept a written record of their histories but instead used ballads and spoken histories that were past down through the generations. In many cases, their legends grew with each passing generation. In this case, writing itself is a form of artificial technology and for many, it becomes a natural or "internalized" process requiring little thought. As technical writers we need to remain vigilant and make sure that we are not looking at our work from such an internalized viewpoint that forget who we are writing for.

Like we discussed in our last set of readings, those who write perfect prose for a manual that no one reads are not doing their jobs correctly. Our writing requires a universality that separates it from other forms such as novels. Though an argument can be made that the best selling novels have some form of universality since they obviously appeal to such large groups of people.

Coming from a world of film, many film makers may only think of subtitles as a way to make sure people who speak another language can understand the film. During my undergrad at Georgia State, I can honestly say that trying to make our movies more friendly to people that are hard of hearing was at no point a priority. Now that I'm thinking about video this way, it seems like a super simple element that can be added to a video to make it understandable to those that may be deaf.

Williams states how, "Creating captions and transcriptions makes such information subject to search and computer analysis..." This part is fascinating since anyone who makes a video for YouTube wants to get as many views as possible. By catering to the deaf and adding captions and transcriptions, a video can now be found easier than it was before. This is another benefit of thinking about universal design when creating content whether it's text or a video.

Williams also points out that by adding a transcription, people who are not hard of hearing are able to comprehend the content easier as well. So by opening up to audiences with disabilities, we may also be helping audiences without them. To me, this is exactly why we should apply elements of Universal Design to our work. Content that was narrow in it's focus before now has a broader reach and impact.

I learned about this in the article and during one of our class discussions. It's simple. Emphasize the content you know your client deems important and vital for your audience with size and font, but don't get too carried away! Serif is always a great option. Everything else can be in san-serif.

Tech writers need to consider how long the content on your client's site will take to load. Ideally, when you land on a page, you should be able to see the main points without even having to scroll very much or at all. If you managed to fill a page with so much information that you're client can't even scroll through because it's taking too long to scroll, than thats's going to turn away traffic and your client isn't going to blame the audience's internet provider but you.

The quote above explains basically how to organize the content you want to emphasize or how to make certain information standout over the other. Headers are considered superordinate elements and those should be easily distinguishable to the eye from the information below it. Although some information below the header can still be considered as superordinate, make sure you use different fonts (as instructed in the other reading) in order for your audience to get a feel of what's important and should be understood over the other general information.

I found this to be quite interesting because I always thought that orientation had a lot to do with user preference. But when you really think about it, most smartphones and tablets function perfectly well both ways and it's up to the user to decide which orientation is their preference. But one thing for sure that technical writers must watch out for is a website that doesn't support both orientations. I personally hate it when I twist my phone to a landscape orientation and the website breaks off in a weird way or the content loses its structure and the sentences are all on top of each other. Always take into consideration the technical issues that can arise when it comes to mobility and multimodal usage of your client's site.

When it comes to mobility, it's important to consider how your client's website will look through a smartphone screen. Most people are always on the go and hardly have enough time to pull out their laptops or sit at their desktops, so iPads and smartphones are everyone's choice. It is important to consider what your client's site will look like on a mobile platform. Lack of an easily accessible or lack of a good structure on mobile platforms will lead your audience to believe that you're not up to date with technology and they'd rather take their money or motives else where. There's just too much competition online for your audience to be struggling with your non-mobile website.

This is so true! When I click on a link to a website, within the first few minutes I am processing the layout of the website and the more unorganized and jumbled all of its content is, the less I want to stay on the website or even scan it. You lose credibility points when your website or your business card isn't cohesive and doesn't let you hit the main points easily. In an age where millions of websites and sources exist, the last thing I want to do is put extra effort into content that's already someone else's job to sort and organize and emphasize for me.

The quote above does a great job explaining how the mind works when an audience is navigating your client's site. As a tech writer, we must time after time think about how our client's audience will navigate the site and how they will process the information displayed. It's a psychological fact that human's prefer patterns and easily pick up on them. That is why a lot of successful websites or technology like Apple uses a minimalistic aesthetic because it's easy to navigate and the brain can easily process its patterns.

We discussed this during one of our client meetings with GCCA. At some point one of my group members wanted to change the color of the site's background in order to add more life to the site. But I along with the client agreed that we wanted to keep the background white because we didn't want to distract our audience from the information offered on the site. It's important to consider what kind of tone your client has set for themselves as far as their company goes and GCCA is a serious organization that wants their potential members to take them seriously and trust them with their money. I don't know if a baby blue background on their site would give off that vibe...

All of the information on the last page before this quote makes perfect since, "make sure your content is visible and visibly distinguishable". This is similar to the other article I just read on fonts where it also said that it is important to distinguish between information by adding different fonts to the content that have the undertone or give off the feelings you want your audience to get from the content. This article isn't only focusing on fonts, but is more multimodal in which it also wants you to consider font size, color, backgrounds, image position, etc. that allows for your audience to easily access the information it needs and you want them to focus on.

I believe that there are more advantages for putting information on the website. People use the internet everyday, so it is likely that the information that someone would like to convey gets seen by at least one viewer everyday. If the information is on paper then it likely, that only a few or no one will see it. This is a period where technology is used heavily everyday, and I think that no one will be able to live in this era if there was no technology or internet. This is just how the world is today. I believe that if you want your information to get known throughout the world the, you should put it on the Web. The Web is open to everyone so, everyone will be able to see it. There are only a few people who read or view things by paper.

I agree with this statement. People generally would fix their eyes on the larger elements. They would think that the larger elements are more important than the smaller ones. The smaller elements would be of less importance to them, so they probably would view it later or never view it at all. If you want viewers to know which elements are important then you should make them bigger, so that they can see it better and be able to understand it better.

But, you must know the point or the purpose that you are trying to reach before you can try to find what designs interest the viewer. If you do not know your purpose or what you are trying to explain then, your viewer might not know what you are portraying either. But, if you know what you are doing and know what purpose you are trying to make, then you and the viewer will be able to see what kind of point that you are trying to make.

This statement makes sense. If everything was in disorder then, nothing would make sense to you or the viewer. You must group related elements together, so that they correlate with each other. Everyone will be able to understand the contents better.

I think that enough information to me would be until the viewer and you understand what the content is about. As long as you write enough till' you and the viewer would be able to look at it and know what it is talking about then, it will be good enough for everyone. But then again, you also do not want to write too much because, the audience or viewer might get tired or it or find it very boring. You should just make sure that the first sentence summarizes the point that you are trying to reach, so that the viewers understand and know what they are looking for.

I think that display size that play an effect on how the viewers would read what is on the screen. If a screen is small then, the viewers might only be seeing maybe half of the display or information. But, if the screen is big then, the viewers would probably get a better view of the display or information is on there. Small screens would only allow viewers to see chunks of the whole picture while, big screens could allow viewers to see everything. They would probably understand the design or information that is on the big screen better than on a small screen.

Subordinate elements needs to be able to complement or give a more detailed explanation of the main elements. The viewers need to see the main element more than the subordinate ones. But, I do not think that this means that the subordinate elements are less important than the main ones. I believe that they are both equally important to the designer and the viewer, but you have to think about which element is going to catch your and the viewer's attention the most. You have to make sure the element that you and the viewer think is most important to make that one stand out the most than the rest of the ones. I believe that there should be no distinction between the subordinate and the main elements.

"Thoughtful design can help viewers in their efforts to apprehend that structure. Design, in its most simple sense, is an attempt to convey visually the logical, functional, or natural relationships that exist among the elements in an information display.(This is true, by the way, regardless of the medium.)"(pg.2-3).

This statement is saying that thoughtful design can help viewers understand the structure more clearly. Only if the design is thoroughly thought out and you as the person who is designing it understands the meaning of it, then the viewer will also understand what it is that you are trying to explain through the design. Most designs' goal are to convey a simple easily understandable relationship between the information that is also on display. If the design on the screen or page does not do that then, you need to look for another design that correlates with the information. The design and information must also be consistent in that they must always complement and relate to each other. You can not have half or three quarters of the design and information relate to each other and the other half not relate to each other, it just wouldn't make any sense. This article emphasizes a lot on design and information, and how their main goal is to relate to each other. I think the previous article that I read about fonts made me understand this article a lot more. Choosing a unique style and font for typing your information with must go with the design and vice versa.

"Any display of information, whether on a screen or on a page, should assist viewers in their efforts to distinguish objects from their backgrounds(that is, to distinguish "figure" from "ground") and from each other(that is, to discriminate)."(pg.2)

Any pictures, videos or any other display of information should help viewers know the difference between it and their background. Displays of information should not distract its' backgrounds. They should be easily visible and easy to distinguish which one is which. Even though, you might find them to be easy to distinguish, but other people might not. So, it really just comes back to not getting to personal whenever you are choosing the background and the design to make sure that they go together and not clash together. You must ask yourself, "Would the design that I am choosing complement the background or would they clash together?" You must remember that you are not the only person who is going to view this display. There is an audience out there who is going to view it, and you want them to able to tell the display and the background a part form each other. You yourself should also be able to tell them apart too.

"Screen elements, whether text, pictures, or icons, become more meaningful when they-and the relationships among them- can be readily apprehended and unambiguously interpreted by the user."(pg.1)

I think that this is a very good point. Screen elements are meaningless unless the viewer or user who is using it knows and understand what it is. If the person who is using the element does not understand what it is then it would be highly likely that the other people who are going to view it are not going to know what it is. It is highly crucial for the designer who is using the element understands what the meaning behind the element is and what it mean just by looking at it, so that other people will be able to understand it too.

This seems like an interesting book title. I won't mind reading a couple pages of this.

If you get a five in this rating you are less likely to get the promotion. At my old job we had a six month employee evaluation similar to this grading scale. Your grading was based on every day performance, attendance, customer service, growth, speed and accuracy in completing tasks, etc.

I guess Photoshop is an unethical software! This explains why so much propaganda mislead voters and influenced them during election time. Editing pictures or distorting them to send a certain message to viewers is a method of unethical persuasion.

Disclaimer alert. I like how the editor made it seem like the author had proof read his work before submitting. Well I can't be too hard on the author, after all there was no auto correct when this was written. That auto correct makes everyone seem like a spelling genus.

OMG!! That's a lot of data to examine. This must of been a very important observation for Sam to collect so much information.

Consequence means a result of an action. If consequences didn't exist there wouldn't be any point in writing anything. Usually consequences has a negative connotation but in tech writing consequence doesn't necessarily mean something good or bad.

This article was publicized two years after I was born! I wonder if there are any recent scholarly resource on ethics of technical writing. In comparison to twenty years ago, how has the analysis of tech writing change? Has the demand for a tech writers gone up or down? Those are questions I would like to know the answers to.

In the past writers and graphic designers had separate roles that never crossed paths. Now in the modern era it's becoming more and more beneficial for both to be well versed.

Every time I see a question on a job application about "ethics" rating 1 to 5 or highly agree to highly disagree I immediately get annoyed. I'm not sure if they are trying to trick the applicant because I'm pretty sure everyone wouldn't answer 100% truthfully in fear of not getting the job.

The "why" is always a thought provoking word. We can always say yes or no but to explain our answer shows the true motive behind an ethical or unethical decision. I sometimes find it difficult to explain my why when being interviewed.

The client a technical writer is working under may provide strict guidelines on how to organize or change information to fit the clients ideal wants. Once a technical writer receives that power he/she can decide if they want to follow instructions form the client. An example of a rough technical communicator is Edward Snowden, because he decided to break the ethical code of silence to leak classified information.

This is important because awareness is key towards making a more ethically inclined workforce. Research will not only reveal ethical issues and solutions for those issues, but it could make more efficient modes of communication

Even though MLA and APA look different they both have specific requirements which set them apart. Header, margin, and indentation are just a few to list.

Over lapping circles of the Venn diagram show inclusions and exclusions of certain things.The closer you get to the middle, the more characteristics are shared.

Flow charts are very resourceful but I prefer making a word web to organize my ideas/thoughts. The first time I saw a flow chart was in my computer information systems class when I were learning about the supply chain model.

Tone was a concern that came up while I was working on my service learning project. We were torn between trying to decide if the website should cater to a more business side of view or display the more underlined cause.

Bold means to stand out and be obvious to viewers in the writing sense but also as a person. I use bold font in most of my writing for titles or sub headings. Subconsciously when I see bold writing in my text book or wherever I know it is important.

I like this definition of maps! When I think about the word map, I imagine visual directions that lead you to a specific destination.

The table is meant for readers to quickly locate what they're looking for. Now I understand why in elementary school we were instructed to study the multiplication table. Understanding the relationship between the Y and X axis, makes finding the solution to multiplication problem much easier.

Format is everything when it comes to writing. This is a prime example when talking about letter heading. Being a technical writer, proper paper formatting makes a big difference in how someone's writing is perceived.

When I read this I thought about the saying "a picture is worth a 1000 words". Having both the image and the words we don't have to guess or assume what the author is trying to convey.

I agree with this point. As technology evolves the different platforms to display a writer's work becomes vast.

These questions are important with any information display because they force you into the audience perspective. This perspective is important for the troubleshooting phase.

Largely, I disagree with this sentiment. Granted, it's understandable if there are a few interactive pieces that are particularly important to keep protected. However, for the most part it would solve a majority of issues if your poster was put together by the time you reached the site. That way you only need to worry about immediate issues and solutions, if something goes wrong.

Creating a storyboard allows you to "play test" your design and allow troubleshooting before final product. If you can manipulate the pieces, then you can come up with several different design strategies.

These are good points for presentations, such as PowerPoint, as well. Consider large presentations with similar limits as posters.

This design tool is considered self-explanatory for the modern English student, but many websites and other information displays need to recognize information priority and make it clear for readers to understand at a glance.

Look at the organization of these slides for examples of contrast. There is a difference in color and boldness to highlight titles, while also a difference in indention to create a sublevel relationship of the text (meaning that readers know that the indented, lower level text is supplementary).

Repetition can be used to create groups by using fonts that correlate with organization (similar to creating headers, ect with the same font and size), colors, layouts, and orientation of columns and rows. There are many subtle ways to use repetition to create subconscious relationships and to create readability. Consider the obvious uses of repetition, as well (including buzzwords).

A quick guide as a reminder to the fundamentals discussed in an earlier annotation.

White space is imperative for visuals because they need the entire focus of the eye. If there is too much crowding, then the audience will be overwhelmed and may lose focus on your topic.

Captions are smaller than your standard text, so it is a great option to help readers get reference for your visual. It's often helpful to keep audiences on track

When considering a map, prioritize the space you must cover. If there is too much material to process, maps lose their relevance to the topic. Using subsections to effectively zoom in are intelligent ways of addressing location while focusing on the specific area(s) you're discussing.

Venn diagrams are great for non vocal presentations because they allow the reader to play with relationships and understand the variations of them. However, Venn Diagrams are not easily lent to vocal presentation because the audience will want the freedom to read the diagram as they prioritize specific relationships instead of following the speaker's path through the diagram.

Diagrams can be tricky to portray in terms that an inexperienced audience can quickly (and easily) understand. I think the example in this presentation is a perfect example of how diagrams are more of a specialized version of communication. This seems to be particularly true about dimensions that require contextual knowledge.

Deciding what the table says before creation is great inspiration for concise titles and priority centered organization.

As Dragga points out, this relationship representation is sacred to readers and it is unethical to manipulate graphical representations of relationships to persuade audiences.

Lynda Tutorials for Dreamweaver

Lynda Tutorials for powerpoint

Vast amounts of tutorials

Having visual material purely to have it, is a serious mistake. It lessens your ethos as speaker, and potentially distracts the audience. Visual material should have relevance to your audience about your topic, and should be addressed. If you don't plan on making your visual a valid piece of your information compilation, it does not belong in your representation of information.

This section is made up of an incredibly important realization about headers. There is a way for descriptive headers (A and B level headers) to exist without being exhaustively long or too general. With a proper summarizing header, you're allowing your audience to digest your information completely by telling them what the message is. This helps readers focus on your message and its relationship to the topic, rather than deciphering text walls for meaning.

We discussed this in class in relation to our Service Learning Deliverable Packets. In the business realm, your document(s) have high likelihood of being revisited with the intent of quickly accessing a certain piece of information. With this being the case, you owe the readers navigational tools to utilize your information the easiest way possible. Efficient formatting for your information and a map for navigating that information is a good idea for dense information.

Presentation conundrums are issues for companies as the expectation of communication on social media becomes more urgent. There are benefits to being personable and relate able, but there are also the costs of losing the ethos of an established professional entity.

This is a basic theme of web design elements such as contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. The relationship of information to presentation is an ever important consideration within modern communication, where the goal is to communicate in the most efficient and relevant ways to your audience.

Visual content can also add relevant context to principles or points. This can be helpful when persuasive because it can connect your presentation to something established within your audience.

Genre options for communication professionals are rapidly expanding, many of which, as Dragga points out, don't have clear mandates as these genres have.

Readability is a growing trend of concern for Technical Writers who publish digital material. This includes how font is represented, from how it looks on a background to how the typeface is read.

These two relationships between representation and information are vital to Technical Communication, resulting in several areas of research regarding what authors can do to communicate effectively, like Dragga's article.

See Also:Multimodal Literacy

A technical writer needs to consider how the deliverable would appear from various perspectives, and how the message it is meant to convey may be changed by a factor like distance.

There are some situations where this is not a big concern. Often it is not important and even inappropriate to add garish aesthetics to a deliverable.

Italics can also be used to highlight key terms or phrases within a body of text. For example in literature if a word in dialogue is meant to be spoken with emphasis, it will often be typed in italics.

This is the primary goal of any from of technical writing. A technical writers main concern is to ensure that the information they are providing is clear, concise, and accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

This reminds me of the Kuleshov effect in film making wherein two unrelated images are edited together in order to create a single idea. the placements of information and other media in a single space creates a similar effect. The audience unconsciously associates two pieces of information when they are delivered in tandem. While this is a great way to organize information within a single piece of content like an infographic it can also be used disingenuously to associate two pieces of information in a way that favors a bias,

The use of a certain kind table in a situation where it wouldn't normally be used in order to better illustrate your opinion could also be considered unethical even if the information you are presenting is accurate.

Pie charts are great for pretty much any situations where you are trying to present the composition of an entire, single entity.

When you compare this graph to the previous graph, you see that it is not as effective when displaying changes in information over time, Graphs like this are however better for offering information for a single period. Interchanging these to graphs would be a great way of manipulating information if you were attempting to persuade your audience.

Line graphs are also a great way to provide information about a single figure's growth and/or reduction over time. Stock prices, for example, are not usually compared within a single chart, however, a line graph is still the best way to display stock price's movement over time.

This could possibly be considered unethical, depending on the situation. If you are delivering information on the understanding that that information is expository, and foregrounding information that favors a bias, then you are not acting ethically.