Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Chapter 8 Designing Pages and Screens Professional Communication: Strategies for College and the Workplace by Dan Jones & Karen Lane

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Principles of Design Simplicity: how you limit the number of page or screen elements so that readers can find information easily Symmetry: how you balance or contrast design elements on a page or screen — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Principles of Design Consistency: how you use repetition effectively in your design choices Usability: how easily the reader can apply the information that you provide — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Principles of Design Readability: how easily the reader can access the document’s information

Designing Pages and Screens

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Organizing Space White space Grids Rules and border graphics Headers and footers Text lists

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Choosing Typefaces Select typefaces that are easy to read Choose typefaces that go well together Stick to “plain” type and avoid extensive use of italics or boldface

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Using Typeface Skillfully AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS Consider the size of your letters and the length of the line Think about spaces between letters, words, lines, and paragraphs

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Selecting Alignment Left aligned Center aligned Right aligned Fully justified

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Using Color Well Treat color as a tool to help readers find and understand content

Improving the Prose Style of Your Web Page

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Improving the Prose Style of Your Web Page Purpose — Consider your goals Focus — Target a specific audience Scannability — Make Web-pages easy to scan Organization — Put important information first — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Improving the Prose Style of Your Web Page Meaningful Headings — Help readers to find information quickly and easily Keywords — Highlight important concepts Chunked information — Keep paragraphs tight — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Improving the Prose Style of Your Web Page Bulleted Lists — Use lists instead of long paragraphs Informal Prose — Use informal prose to help readers understand essential points quickly Humor — Use humor to help communicate with readers on a personal level — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Improving the Prose Style of Your Web Page Mechanics and Grammar — Be accurate to make your site more credible Credibility — Offer readers good writing with an objective tone and regularly updated information Jargon — Avoid jargon — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Improving the Prose Style of Your Web Page Links — Write out the names of links to tell readers what they might expect International Audience — Tailor your document to meet the needs of the entire Internet community Graphics and Text — Combine text and graphics effectively

What Do Readers Expect from a Web Site? ?

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Readers expect... a title at the top of each page your name and contact information at the bottom a “date last revised” notice — continued —

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Readers expect... a graphic with lists of links or a navigation bar Blue links to indicate unvisited sites and red or purple for those that have been visited

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Organizing Online Space Avoid frames Show overviews of several topics with links to further material Display small graphics, or thumbnails, that link to bigger images

Copyright © 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Longman publishers. All rights reserved. Organizing Online Space Minimize scrolling Put the most important information toward the top of the screen Keep pages uncluttered