Plain Language and Information Design
Presentation by Bill DuBay and Ron
Scheer
Facilitator, Cheryl Stephens
Reported by Michelle Black
Opening remarks
Cheryl Stephens opened up the session with a true example of the "teachable moment." A fellow traveler, having received her Green Card approval, had missed the fine print on the approval: that which said she was not to leave Canada until she'd received her actual Card. As a result of her error - or rather, that of the department issuing the Cards - she was detained at the airport. Based on this and the unfortunate many others that occur daily, Cheryl suggested a potential definition of plain language as something that is:- Understandable to its intended readers
- Usable and attractive, so readers will actually pick it up in the first place.
To lead more directly into the topic for discussion by the panelists, Cheryl showed an example to illustrate the prevalence of Web-related images used to convey messages. The full-page ad for PSINet depicted a typical Internet screen, dotted with the symbols that appear when graphics are taking a long time to load.
The ad's intended message is that with PSINet's service, Web users will not have to worry about slow loading time. The symbols represent a common irritation that Web users wouldn't have to endure if they used PSINet. Cheryl used this ad as an example, to point out the need to understand the Web to understand the message of the advertisement.
Bill's Presentation
Bill introduced his talk in the context of the handouts, many of which were research-based articles by Karen Schriver (handout from 1989), who worked in the document design area from 1980-1989. He pointed out that there is still much work to be done in this area. He drew our attention to her definition of information design.He pointed out that research has just come to information design as a concept, but that the principles have been around since the beginning of writing. The handout includes data on how readers read, use and understand text and its characteristics. He also pointed out the discussion of verbal features. Despite the comprehensiveness of Schriver's work, it doesn't cover principles behind how we organize ideas.
He reminded us that document design principles are all around us. One good early example is the Gutenberg Bible, with its rich text and use of color.
He then talked about Frank Smith's principle of transcription: the act of searching the brain for ideas, and putting them down on paper. In other words, good, clear organized writing requires good, clear, organized thinking - a mental hierarchy of the importance of ideas.
Bill then told us that his Dad had been a sign painter, so he had learned the importance of typeface, pitch, spacing and so on at an early age through his work with artists. He went on the say that in this age everyone-artists and non-artists alike-is expected to design things on their own. Therefore, there is no longer a large team on a project dedicated to the task of ensuring readability and usability.
But information design is vital, since it draws the reader into the text. Elements like call-outs, headers and so on show relationships between what's important and what's less so. It's also important because people don't have time for reading, hence the need to represent the heart your message through things like graphics.
Nine-tenths of meaning can be gained from scanning a page that has other representational elements besides text - provided they are of course relevant to what's being said. In other words, information design needs to be intelligent and thoughtful.
Bill pointed out that, a few years back, the thought among technical writers was that people were already motivated to read something, because they needed it to get a machine going. However, research done over the past 20-50 years has disproven this.
For example, the Information Design Association (www.popcomm.co.uk/IDA) decided that information design was more than just graphics, layout and so on. Pioneers in the area, they concluded that information design involved all rhetorical aspects of writing, especially planning. (He added that the IDA publishes a journal, and has a conference coming up.)
For Bill, the "bible" of information design is Karen Schriver's Dynamics in Document Design (1999). The book is quite theoretical and academic, rather than a discussion of what skills are needed for good document design. His only criticism of the book is that she doesn't emphasize enough the importance of collaboration.
Two other "gurus" in the area are JoAnn T. Hackos and Janice C. Redish, both of whom have done enormous research into usability testing, e.g., User and Task Analysis for Interface Design.
He noted that, with texts that will be read by people who are not present in the planning, there are two ways to overcome this lack of an audience analysis:
- Collaborate with experts in various aspects of document design, helping to crystallize the image of your audience.
- Plan the document well, so you can make your document consistent using consistent policy-bound steps. (This idea comes from Joanne Hackos' Managing your Documentation Projects.
To demonstrate his point, he showed an image designed by Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. It maps out, through a series of curves and lines on a graph, various aspects of the declining trajectory of Napoleon's army. Describing it as "the best statistical drawing ever made," Bill noted the way the graphic draws the viewer into so many levels of meaning. He added that it was an example of the geographic representation of meaning. (The book is available at Amazon.) From the audience, Christine Mowat commented that the drawing had been designed in 1861 without the aid of computers.
Bill then went through his model of the elements of information design (elements directly across from one another are not related):
| Activity | Skills |
| needs analysis | management |
| audience analysis | group work |
| prototyping | writing |
| testing | proofing |
| development | graphics |
| production | editing and revision |
| distribution | publish and print |
| evaluation | usability testing |
Bill proposed then that the big question is: Do they even need a document? Hackos and Redish's works are all about testing during the development stage.
Ron's presentation ~ Metatext for Information Design
First off, Ron joked that he felt like he should be Jay Leno, given how fatigued we must be at the end of Day II!Using a Jakob Neilsen term, Ron said his talk would be on Metatext for Information Design. He defined "metatext" for us as the navigational elements and identifiers on a Web page (not the headers or footers). It's the text that floats over the text to identify the site to detectors at a higher level.
He introduced the linked concept of the Politics of Readability (Orwell), which refers to government bureaucracy. He cautioned that the corporate world as well has its own brand of bureaucracy and politics.
Ron began to tell us about his experience with a client: CB Richard Ellis, World's largest commercial real estate firm. The client asked Ron to take 20-30 internal and external client publications (e.g., about market trends, and so on); the publications have different distribution intervals, many stakeholders and contributors worldwide.
In trying to rationalize a set of documents, the client also wanted Ron to devise a document system, and cover system for the document system itself. Ron would work with a graphic designer as well on this contract.
The clients' more specific needs:
- easy-to-use metatext and design guidelines that could be used around the world.
- a system that could handle a wide range of content
- consistency with new design guidelines (distinct look and feel)
Ron continued that his work with CB. Richard Ellis was unlike any other work he had done, with the actual product going from quite flashy to something more effective for the company.
The roll-out date was scheduled to be January 1, 2000.
The issues were:
- The publications' names were not consistent within the organization.
- It was difficult to determine the contents by looking at the cover (thus not helping people who needed to ensure they had the correct publication).
- The need to reinforce their market position as a "global, innovative company." Since they had recently merged with a UK company, they needed to appear less stodgy. They needed to have weight and convey a lot of value to the field.
- The designs would ultimately end up appearing on the staff intranet as well.
- The document had adopted corporate graphics standards.
Ron's Approach with CB Richard Ellis
Ron started by doing a document "audit." He introduced to the client the concept of document design...and no on wanted to do it. The document audit itself was difficult, again because no one wants to do it.He did an inventory of the various documents within the organization, including elements like:
- Type
- Geographical location
- Main content
Ron showed our group a text-only version of how the results would appear on the page. He noted that he had not done plain language work, as the company had said they would do it.
Ron then showed a couple of examples of the design versions that they played with, signaling to us the efforts being made to demonstrate the company's globalness. Funnily enough, what they ended up after a few permutations was something more like a masthead.
He mused about various miscommunications as the document progressed. For example, only later in the project did he find out that what they were doing would be limited to the four corporate colors. And ironically, in the end they ended up going with the same old titles!
Ron wrapped up by re-emphasizing his wish in this talk to:
- Represent how painstaking this sort of process can be, and
- Demonstrate the need to involve the client in the project.