Information Design (Technical Writing)

Information Design is shaping and planning the contents using visual and technological basis with sanction budget and time limit.

Understanding Creativity:
Advance presentation design will ensure that the content is read. In document design, you have to conscious on various issues. But creativity is one of the important issues in document design. Simple design ideas work. The challenges lie in putting ordinary things extraordinarily.

► Grace: Divine Inspiration- Do you have it in you?

► Accident: Good Fortune

► Association: Lateral Thinking

► Cognitive: Nothing special, depends on reasoning

► Personality- Intrinsic part of growth and ability

Implementing Creativity
Simple design ideas work. The challenges lie in putting ordinary things extraordinarily.

► Factors Governing Design Ideas
1. Content
2. Technology
3. Visuals
4. Budget

Technical writers can use technology to regulate contents and visuals used in the presentation based on budgetary restriction.

What is information design?
Physical Design- Can readers find the information correctly?
You can find out the physical factors such as font size, font type, margin, white space and so on. Developing the sense of design through three ‘eyes’

► Visual-eyes: Observe things

► Critic-eyes: separate good from bad

► Anal-eyes: Select the good

1. Elements in Physical Design:
The design on screen or print that can be seen physically answers the question- Can readers find message or information they need? For the solution, we can find out following factors:

► Page and Screen Design

► Head Margin

► Foot Margin

► For edge margin

► Back Margin

► Times New Roman and Arial

► White Space management: It is breathing room for the text.

2. Elements in Cognitive Design:
1. Can readers understand the information they need?
2. Why is this information provided? Generate revenue, content expenses, comply with rules
3. Describing scenario and tasks
4. Presentation with and without words.

3. Elements in Affective Design:
It means creating a personal dialogue with the customers to answer the question.

► How do readers feel about the information?

► Attracting and holding attention: Use lots of subheadings as they are useful to break up long tracts of text and make it easier to read.

► Change management:

► Cross-cultural communication

► Motivating the audience- Must use, should use, nice to use.

Design Process:
The technical writer or designer needs to experiments on the ideas or issues or subject and then select the best out of them (ideas/issues). Selecting one is one of the challenges in technical communication.