Putnis and Petelin (1996) state that readers remember not what writers tell them, but what they tell themselves. It is important to know that information on a document must be easily accessible and understandable to readers. You have to place yourself in their shoes and look at the context from their perspective. I'll use my group's presentation as an example; we were explaining "how prose and graphics interact" and we simplified the theory with an example, thus making it easy for the audience to understand the hard facts.When we design a document, we must understand who our target audience is; the way they interpret images and text according to their personal beliefs or cultural understanding. Schriver (1997) warns that document designers who misunderstand the audience and their frames of reference can create documents that evoke confusion or even anger. In some cases images need to be based according to the local culture which includes familiar signs or symbols.
We must also understand that the way people read electronic documents is slightly different. Nielsen (1997) points out that people pick out individual words or sentences when they view a web page, instead of reading through the whole thing. Therefore, a web document needs to be able to capture the attention of the reader by injecting some creativity into the text, such as using highlighted or bold keywords.
When presenting a document, remember to balance the prose and graphics. This means providing only a few details in text and adding some visual/verbal examples. Morton (2006) also says that using relevant images will help reinforce the key message in a presentation, and long sentences should be cut down into short bullet points instead. Here in one of my presentation slides , I've made use of a visual example alongside the text to explain how visual literacy works:
We must also understand that the way people read electronic documents is slightly different. Nielsen (1997) points out that people pick out individual words or sentences when they view a web page, instead of reading through the whole thing. Therefore, a web document needs to be able to capture the attention of the reader by injecting some creativity into the text, such as using highlighted or bold keywords.When presenting a document, remember to balance the prose and graphics. This means providing only a few details in text and adding some visual/verbal examples. Morton (2006) also says that using relevant images will help reinforce the key message in a presentation, and long sentences should be cut down into short bullet points instead. Here in one of my presentation slides , I've made use of a visual example alongside the text to explain how visual literacy works:
A good document not only contains informative and relevant graphics, but also well written content. Peha (n.d.) mentions that good writing has interesting ideas, memorable word choices and also effective organizing. All these factors are essential in contributing to a document that helps readers to understand and interpret the visual and verbal content efficiently.
References:
References:
- Morton, S 2006, Presentation panic?,viewed 3 April 2009, http://www.mybusiness.co.uk/YeqiQutoRI5jag.html
- Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, viewed 13 April 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
- Peha, S n.d., What is Good Writing?, viewed 12 April 2009, http://www.ttms.org/writing_quality/writing_quality.htm
- Putnis, P, Petelin, R 1996, Professional Communication: principles and applications, prentice hall, Sydney.
- Schriver, SA 1997, Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
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