Barker - Chapter 11 - Laying Out Pages and Screens

Writing Software Documentation: A Task-Oriented Approach

Thomas T. Barker

Chapter 11 – Laying Out Pages and Screens

This chapter describes two main elements of document design: the design of the screens and pages and the design of type. Barker begins by presenting several graphics illustrating major trends in page and screen design.

Guidelines

Barker’s 6 Guidelines for designing pages and screens proceed as follows:

1. Review the User Analysis

The goals of layout resemble those of document design in general. First, it’s designed to meet dynamic needs with a static document. Second, it should support overall task orientation. And third, it should accommodate the visual needs of the user, the need to learn and do through images rather than words.

2. Create Page Grids

Page grids define communication spaces by drawing invisible “fences” around areas of a page. They act like a scaffold or framework onto which text and graphics can be anchored.

These can incorporate design elements such as:

• Grid lines
• Margins
• Columns
• Gutters
• White space
• Baseline

3. Define the Page Grid Using Styles

The page grid defined in the last step should provide a road map for almost all your pages. At this point, you should define the styles that you want to use to set up the pages. This includes page elements such as margins, gutters, line spacing, the size and font of text, and so forth. Special concerns when designing for the screen include elements such as column spacing, arrangement of headings, and how hyperlinks are indicated.

4. Draw Thumbnail Sketches

A thumbnail sketch uses lines and spaces to show how pages should be organized. One method for producing these involves folding a piece of paper in half multiple times to produce a grid. At this point, you may draw in margins, columns, and page features. It helps to model your page design on a design you have seen that seems particularly suited to your project.

5. Set up Pages and Styles in Your Word Processor

Using a word processor or desktop publishing program, you can establish specifications for pages by defining both styles for text and page setup parameters. There are two very important reasons for using styles. These include:

• The styles can be changed later at a global level
• The styles ensure consistency across a document set

6. Determine the Layout of Help Documents

Screens offer an array of features you can use to create a usable and intuitive design. These include frames, narration strategies, hypertext links, and image maps. Remember that users search for information differently on a screen than on a page. It is important to understand the constraints of page and screen design, and how they differ. Barker presents a table listing some of the differences between page and screen layout elements.

Discussion

Designing Communication Spaces

There are two important aspects to any document that need to be decided:

• The degree of modularity pages and screens need
• The degree of structure pages and screens need

Modularity means breaking the information into chunks of text and graphic units to make them easier for the user to digest. Ask yourself if your page design contains all of the information needed by users to perform and fully understand the task. Barker quotes Edmond Weiss’ assertions that modules should be functional, independent, and small, providing greater ease of access that unlocks information. Online help documents can segment information more easily through the use of pop-up windows, expandable text, and rollovers.

Structure refers to the arrangement of information according to patterns. This requires defining spatial relationships between chunks of information. Research into how people process information has shown that individuals locate information in documents by remembering the physical location of information on the page. Elements that contribute to structure in a document include:

• Rules
• White space
• Bullets
• Chunks

Common Page Designs

In this section, Barker lists some common page designs. These include:

Two-Column Format: Allows the user to easily distinguish between guidance information and support information, and works best with procedures and step-by-step instruction. It is not as dense as a one-column format.

One-Column Format: This format keeps task information together in a linear form, and can be a good way to present long sections of prose.

The Elements of Page Design

In this section, Barker lists and discusses various elements that the document designer must consider in order to produce an effective document.

• The Left Margin
• Columns
• Headers and Footers
• Icons and Diagrams
• Screen Shots
• Rules
• Pagination

Barker concludes with examples of common page and screen designs, a glossary, and a document layout checklist.