Question 1

Below is the home page of a website that provides pet owners holistic ways and treatments options to care for their pet's health.
  Knowing what you know about effective document design, first describe what makes the website unusable, than describe how you would use design elements to effectively design the webpage, make it visually effective, and improve the usability.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Below is the home page of a...

Question 2

Explain the considerations you should take into account when designing a document that readers might access on a variety of digital devices.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain the considerations you should take into...

Question 3

Besides the information and words you choose to include in a technical communication, what other important aspect of a technical communication must you consider in order for it to be easily read and interpreted by your target audience.

Accepted Answer

Effective communication requires you to include accurate information, write effective paragraphs with effective sentence structure, as well as design the document so it is easy to read and understand for the intended audience. Technical communication must be accessible to all readers regardless of their physical abilities. This includes incorporating design elements, such as headings and boldface type to call attention to salient information, including multimedia, such as images and illustrations, audio, and video, as well as laying out the information on a page with effective use of white space. You might also incorporate links for more information and encourage interactivity, such as your readers to comment or share the information with others via email or through their online social networks. In addition, you do not want to overwhelm your audience with too much information, so designing a document that is tailored for your audience and their informaiton needs must also be considered.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a valuable guideline for composing and designing emails and other electronic media that is easy to read?

Accepted Answer

Many individuals access information, today, from a mobile device. The medium of communication, this being a mobile device, or a mobile context, must be considered when designing messages that are going to be easy to read and understood quickly. If you design your emails for quick and easy reading, your recipients will be able to decipher your intended meaning efficiently and respond readily and appropriately to your instructions, questions, and requests regardless of their location. There are six simple guidelines to follow:
1. Keep your messages brief.
2. Use short paragraphs.
3. Use the subject line to specify your message.
4. Use headings to identify the sections of your message.
5. Use hyperlinks selectively and strategically.
6. Ask simple yes/no questions.

Question 5

Why are subject lines important for readers?

Accepted Answer

A clear and specific subject line will preview your message for your recipients, making their reading easier and aiding their understanding. Subject lines also help readers find your messages later, especially if you write a separate message for each topic you address. If your message includes a sizable or time-intensive attachment, you might want to identify it in the subject line, which enables readers to wait to read the email (an attend to the attachment) later. Subject lines also help readers sort information.

Question 6

What are some design elements you can incorporate in a document to increase the accessibility?

Accepted Answer

Technical communication should be accessible to all readers regardless of physical and cognitive abilities. Text, visual, audio, and video media can all be made more accessible by incorporating the following design elements:
● Simplify the display of paragraphs, headings, and lists and avoiding unnecessary variations in the size, color, style, and design of the type.
● Use screen readers and similar assistive technologies.
● Write in plain language.
● Use alternative text, captions, or titles to describe the images in graphs, charts, diagrams, drawings, and photographs.
● Make audio information accessible to people of limited hearing by incorporating closed captions or by including a complete script.
● Pair audio that describes images and actions in a video for those who are visually impaired.

Question 7

What are headings?

Accepted Answer

Headings are the short titles that you use to label each section and subsection of your document. Frequent headings help readers know where they are in a document at all times.

Question 8

What is one design method you can use to help your readers locate information in a technical communication?

Accepted Answer

Readers rarely access and read information word-for-word or sentence by sentence, they read selectively, scan, and skim information. Following are four ways to help your readers find information easily:
● Use frequent headings.
● Write descriptive headings.
● Design distinctive headings.
● Use page numbers and headers or footers.

Question 9

What method can you use to ensure you have appropriately and effectively designed a technical communication?

Accepted Answer

Technical communicators encourage the performance of user testing with representative users to ensure a document is designed appropriately and effectively for the intended target audience. It is better to perform user testing - or usability testing - with a larger group of users, but the objective is to make sure that readers will be able to locate and retrieve the information they need to take actions and make decisions. To conduct your usability test, give each of your representative readers a copy of the document and ask him or her to find the answers to several questions about the subject and about the document itself. You will observe how they interact with the document, where their eyes go to look for certain information, as well as look for facial expressions and body gestures that may signal confusion or frustration. You can also follow-up usability testing by performing an interview with representative users.

Question 10

What does the visual perceptual concept of contrast mean?

Accepted Answer

Contrast refers to the visual perceptual aspect that people use to perceive things different from one another. Different items must visibly differ, especially more important and less important items.

Question 11

What does the visual perceptual concept of repetition mean?

Accepted Answer

Repetition refers to the concept that people perceive informaiton that is repeated in a similar fashion as unified and enables people to better access and make meaning from repeated information. Repetition of design creates unity and builds familiarity.

Question 12

What type of font would be more accessible for people with limited vision and who rely on screen readers?

Accepted Answer

Font type, size, style, and color are the major categories of type design that you must select to design a legible document.
● Type: The two major categories of type design (or fonts) are serif and sans serif (i.e., with or without serifs, the extra flourishes on the tips of the individual letters). Special fonts that imitate handwriting or that incorporate highly decorative flourishes are appropriate for social invitations, posters, and flyers: however, these exotic type designs could prove difficult for screen readers to decipher and could leave your document inaccessible to individuals with limited vision.
● Style: Type style (regular, bold, italic) also influences legibility. Regular type is easiest to read (for both human beings and screen readers) and must be your default choice. Bold type is usually reserved for headings and isolated words or phrases that merit emphasis. Italic type is challenging to decipher, especially in long passages: reserve it for foreign words and phrases or book and film titles.
● Color / Contrast: Black text on a white background (or dark text on a light background) offers the easiest reading and is the standard for page and screen. Other colors for text or background could easily prove distracting or disorienting. If you can't justify a variation-or if a variation is only decorative-avoid it: you will never go wrong using the colors that readers expect to find.
● The key issue is to make sure that the specific type you choose is accessible to your audience in the size, color, style, and design that will display on the page or screen that you are composing.

Question 13

Changing the design of a document for arbitrary reasons can…

Accepted Answer

Reading is easier if your design is consistent. As you consider your audiences, the information you have to deliver, and the ways that people will read and use your document, you must develop a page or screen design appropriate for your situation. After you decide on this design, don't change it arbitrarily; this will only confuse readers because you have already built their expectations regarding how certain kinds of information will appear.

Question 14

Which of the following statements is true of blank space in a document?

Accepted Answer

Space is a critical element in design for both paper and screens because it makes information easier to find and read. Blank space can be useful to frame and group information. Blank space will help readers to keep track of their location in your document and to recognize the essential items of information.

Question 15

Headings should be…

Accepted Answer

Effective document design includes compose descriptive headings that help readers quickly locate information. Headings identify the key topics and reveal the direction of thought. There are five guidelines to writing descriptive headings:
o Use concrete language.
o Use questions, verb phrases, and sentences instead of nouns alone.
o Use standard keywords if readers expect them.
o Make the headings at a given level parallel.
o Make sure the headings match any list or table of contents in the document.

Question 16

Multi-tasking is part of workplace writing; that means all but one of the following is true:

Accepted Answer

Readers rarely access and read information word-for-word or sentence by sentence, they read selectively, scan, and skim information. Also, keep in mind that readers are not paid to read your writing in the workplace. Following are four ways to help your readers find information easily:
● Use frequent headings.
● Write descriptive headings.
● Design distinctive headings.
● Use page numbers and headers or footers.

Question 17

Document design for the screen is challenging because digital documents…

Accepted Answer

Many individuals access information, today, from a mobile device. The medium of communication, this being a mobile device, or a mobile context, must be considered when designing messages that are going to be easy to read and understood quickly. If you design your emails for quick and easy reading, your recipients will be able to decipher your intended meaning efficiently and respond readily and appropriately to your instructions, questions, and requests regardless of their location. There are six simple guidelines to follow:
1. Keep your messages brief.
2. Use short paragraphs.
3. Use the subject line to specify your message.
4. Use headings to identify the sections of your message.
5. Use hyperlinks selectively and strategically.
6. Ask simple yes/no questions.

Question 18

Chapter 5 of your text lists several questions in a Document Design Checklist you can use to ensure you have effectively and appropriately designed your document. List at least three two of these questions and explain why they are important aspects of document design.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Chapter 5 of your text lists several...

Question 19

Describe three ways to maintain consistency in your document.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe three ways to maintain consistency in...

Question 20

Describe three guidelines you can use to compose descriptive headings that enable your readers to locate information easily.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe three guidelines you can use to...

Quiz 5: Designing Documents