Sometimes White Space Is the Best Content

Posted on 03. Jun, 2009 by Jeremy in Burning or Building, Graphic Design & Other Cool Stuff

Magazines, newspapers, and TV screens are often crammed with information, graphics, and ads. There’s a good reason for this—those spaces are expensive, and the more content the producers can cram in, the more money they make—but the result can be a cluttered appearance that leaves you clueless about where you should be looking.

Luckily, that content-to-profit equation doesn’t apply to website pages. You can create as many pages as you want on your site (as long as you don’t exceed your server space limit, but that’s another story), and you should use plenty of white space to take advantage of that breathing room.

Don’t think of white space as blank areas or missing content; it’s vital for achieving a balanced look for your text and graphics, as well as for letting the viewer know where to focus his or her attention.

If you think of your webpage as a pond and drop a pebble in the upper-left corner, the density of ripples will illustrate the average visitor’s eye pattern across the page. The upper-left corner, with lots of tightly packed ripples, will get the most attention. The lower-right corner, with a few widely spaced ripples, will usually get the least attention.

Therefore, if you put your logo, contact information, and special announcements in the upper left, you’ll want to give them plenty of white space with margins and padding so the viewer can easily identify the graphic, read your phone number and email link, and see what’s new.

Skimming speed increases as viewers scan the rest of the page, so you’ll want to use even more white space to make sure those eyes land on the important images and content. If that means you have to create 10 web pages and link them instead of cramming everything on to one, so be it.

What Makes a Smart Doc Smart?

Posted on 14. Apr, 2009 by Jeremy in Burning or Building, Documentation & Training

I’m sure we can all take a tedious text procedure and make it look better by reformatting, adding graphics, or using white space better. Does that make it a smart doc? I don’t think so.

Smart docs require some planning and a lot of thought because they aren’t single pretty documents but a system of documentation that works together, is easy to use, and is rigorously logical. True smart docs can’t be developed in a silo but must be developed with the other documents in the system.

For instance, smart docs don’t repeat information in multiple places unless absolutely necessary. Information goes in the one most logical place. This sometimes requires some thinking about what that most logical place is and sometimes sparks some debate (which can be very healthy and lead to a better solution).

Smart docs also put similar information in similar documents. If information on how to operate a cartoner is in a reference manual, then information on how to operate a labeler is in a reference manual. If setup information is in a checklist on Line 2, then setup information is in a checklist for Line 6. This consistent documentation makes it easier for operators to find the information they need.

It’s not enough to have pretty documents. You need a system of smart docs.

Stop with the Boring!

Posted on 02. Feb, 2009 by Jeremy in Burning or Building, Documentation & Training, Writing & Marketing

What reaction do you have when I say “technical communications”? Eyes glaze over. Brain turns off. Snoring begins. Me too, and I’m a technical writer!

So granted, the technical stuff isn’t very exciting, but it is important. So…presenting the information in a text document with long paragraphs will mean absolutely no one will read it, and therefore the people who need the information won’t get it.

What can you do to present the information in a better format? Start thinking of your document as a picture.

  • Is it pleasing to look at?
  • Is there enough white space?
  • Are there parts of the document that can be presented as a series of bullets rather than a paragraph of text?
  • Can you use a flowchart (with either text boxes or pictures)?
  • How about a diagram?
  • Can you use color to enhance understanding?
  • Can the information be presented electronically? If so, there are even more possibilities for creative presentation like a website or video clip.

In this electronic age the possibilities really are endless. So stop with the boring already!