1. HATS - A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents
Presentation by H. Allen Brizee;
Adapted from Baker (2001)
HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents, adapted from William H. Baker’s “HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents,” Business Communication Quarterly V. 64, no. 2 June 2001.
Composed for the Purdue Writing Lab by Allen Brizee, Ph.D. Student, Rhetoric and Composition, Purdue University
Adapted from William H. Baker’s “HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents,” Business Communication Quarterly V. 64, no. 2 June 2001.

2. HATS: Introduction
Use HATS to create documents that are easy to access, easy to navigate, easy to remember:
Headings – to promote easy navigation
Access – to promote the finding and understanding of information
Typography – to promote ease of reading and clear levels of information hierarchy
Space – to promote effective document design

3. HATS: Introduction
Readers need information quickly, so documents should ensure easy access to important information:
Writing should be clear and concise. But before audiences read words, they must access the document
Documents that are easy to access and understand are more persuasive and user-centered
Use HATS: Headings, Access, Typography, Space
Key Concept: Before readers get to the content of a document, they see the document (blind and low vision readers being the exception). Therefore, documents must be visually effective (not just attractive - avoid using the aesthetic approach).
Rationale: Writers unfamiliar with professional document design may approach writing in a chronological manner, assuming that readers will read their entire document from beginning to end. In the workplace, a complex audience will consist of many different readers with many different needs. Managers will access documents for the conclusions and recommendations, accountants will focus on budget sections of reports, and technical experts may read the entire document. So, documents must contain clear navigations signposts to accommodate these readers’ needs. Creating a document that is navigable and that serves the needs of a complex audience is known as a “modular document.”

4. HATS: Headings Headings
Headings are navigation signposts in table of contents
Headings help guide readers through documents
Headings announce forthcoming information
Table of Contents
Introduction
Background
Problem
Introduction
This report overviews the history of air pollution in greater Lafayette, Indiana, and it discusses our ideas for reducing air pollution.
Key Concept: The table of contents and headings are readers’ first guides to navigating a document. The table of contents and headings should be clear and consistent, and they should work together.
Rationale: Writers unfamiliar with professional document design may not know about the interconnected navigation features necessary to create an effective and user- centered text. The table of contents, section titles, headings, and page numbers should all work together to ensure navigability.

5. HATS: Headings (con’t.)
Adequacy – Documents should have an ample number of headings to serve as navigation signposts
Hierarchy – Use typeface, size, style, and alignment to show different levels of importance and detail:
Background
This section outlines the history of air pollution in greater Lafayette…
The Early Years
During the industrial growth of the early twentieth century…
Key Concept: See slide #4.
Rationale: See slide #4.

6. HATS: Access
Access
Readers should be able to find and understand important information easily
To ensure easy access of important information:
Use bullets or dashes, or for steps, use numbers. Note the architecture in this presentation
Use graphics such as tables, graphs, process charts, and photographs
Key Concept: See slide #4.
Rationale: See slide #4.

7. HATS: Access (con’t.)
Graphics – Think of yourself as an information designer not just a wordsmith. Here are some suggestions:
Information Type
Effective Presentation
Numeric
Tables, charts
People, objects
Pictures, line drawings
Processes
Flow charts
Geographic Data
Maps
Nonchronological lists
Bulleted lists
Chronological or prioritized lists
Numbered lists
Key Concept: Visuals should work with text to help convey complex ideas or technical information.
Rationale: Writers unfamiliar with professional document design may not have worked with visual elements or page layout. One of the most noticeable differences between academic and professional writing is the visual dimension of the pages. Inexperienced writers should not, however, merely use graphics to make a page look “pretty.” Text and visuals should work together to explain ideas.

8. HATS: Typography Typography
Typeface has persuasive impact and can be changed to improve design
Avoid using more than two types of font in one document
Make sure you can read all the text against the background
Unless instructed otherwise, left-justify your body text
Key Concept: Type face conveys rhetorical messages that can impact a document’s effectiveness.
Rationale: Writers unfamiliar with professional document design may not consider the rhetorical messages sent by different fonts. Font choice should reflect the rhetorical situation.

9. HATS: Typography (con’t.)
Typography Continued: Fonts
Use Times New Roman for body text
Use Arial or other sans serif fonts such as Franklin Gothic Book for headings. Avoid unusual fonts such as Party LET for professional documents
Use 10 or 12 point font for body text. For headings, bold the text or use a different font; bolding and underlining is overkill
Key Concept: Type face conveys rhetorical messages that can impact a document’s effectiveness.
Rationale: Writers unfamiliar with professional document design may not consider the rhetorical messages sent by different fonts. Font choice should reflect the rhetorical situation.

10. HATS: Space Space Use plenty of space so you don’t overwhelm readers
Ensure that appropriate top, bottom, left, and right space margins frame the elements on a page (1 inch margin is good)
Allow for space around visuals rather than using frames, unless an edge of your visual bleeds into the white space of the page
Do not crowd your words. Trust your eyes when you step back to view your page at a distance
Use this presentations to guide you. Your documents should be visually effective, and they should contain good content
Key Concept: Use white space to make pages accessible and easy to read. Too much text makes pages feel cramped and uninviting.
Rationale: Writers unfamiliar with professional document design may have only been exposed to the essay page layout, which consists primarily of large blocks of difficult to navigate text. Pages composed of densely packed text are not as accessible, and so not as persuasive, as pages using white space to help readers find the information they need.

11. HATS: Space (con’t.)
Here is an overview of how pages look from a distance:
Traditional essay: large blocks of text, information difficult and time consuming to retrieve
Report format with small, well- balanced blocks of concise information, easy to access; essay topic sentence becomes heading
Key Concept: See slide #9.
Rationale: See slide #9.

12. HATS: Space (con’t.)
Design – The first thing readers see is the design of your document. If your document does not look professional and effective, your ethos will suffer.
Use the elements of design outlined in this presentation:
Colors – Make sure colors work well together
Avoid combinations such as yellow-orange, black-purple
Consider cultural expectations and color blind readers
Colors on monitors and colors on paper look different
Consider that you may not have access to a color printer, so design documents that look good in black and white
Key Concept: Page design affects readers’ ability to access and navigate documents. Elements such as color, shapes, placement, contrast, and balance all influence page design.
Rationale: Writers’ experiences with elements of page design may be limited to artistic contexts. Therefore, writers may undervalue elements of page design in professional documents.

13. HATS: Space (con’t.)
Shapes – Avoid awkward shapes or shapes that do not work well together
Spheres, see below, can work well in documents
Always look at your document from a distance; turn it upside down, tilt it. Do the shapes conflict?
Key Concept: See slide #11.
Rationale: See slide #11.

14. HATS: Space (con’t.)
Placement – Cultures reading from left to right move in the Z pattern as they read down a page
Place visuals and text accordingly, with the most important information in upper left and bottom right areas
Contrast – Allow for contrast on your page
Do not place a line of circles on the same plain on a page; place visuals and text using the Z pattern so that you create an effective contrast
Balance – Balance your pages and make sure that your eye is not drawn to any area of the page unintentionally
How is your page going to be viewed? By itself, opposite another page?
Do the two pages work well together?
Key Concept: See slide #11.
Rationale: See slide #11.

15. HATS: Space (con’t.) Z pattern Contrast: circles aren’t on same plain
Balance: page is balanced
Key Concept: See slide #11.
Rationale: See slide #11.

16. HATS: Recap To Recap – Ask these questions when using HATS:
Headings – Are there enough headings? Do they reflect a clear hierarchy?
Access – Is important information easy to find? Is the information easy to digest? Does the method of presentation enhance readability and clarity?
Typography – Does the document use the most appropriate typefaces, size, styles, and alignment for both body text and headings?
Space – Does the document have appropriate white space to make it inviting and easy to read?

17. The End