A good document design can't be easily done by anybody. A good document design would help readers read efficiently, emphasize on most important content and also encourages readers to feel good about a communication.(Putnis and Petelin,1996,pp.33). A good document design nowadays are basically not dominated by texts but instead, visual graphics are the one taking place to show or proof a document design.
According to Williams (Putnis & Petelin, 1994), “visual media frequently offer a superior alternative to prose for the communication of some kinds of information”. Visual normally helps reader to describe something better than words. But that would be only very effective visuals which can speak a thousand words without a single text written. “Readers do not read only the printed words on a page; they also ‘reads’ the visual presentation of the text” (Reep, 2006). Visuals do their part as guiding them how to understand that document.
The figure above is an example of how visual helps understand better so that you would not get confused easily by the long descriptions in text.
According to Shriver (1997), “whether words or pictures are better depends on the knowledge and skills of the reader.” Yes. it depends on how much ability or the understanding of the readers. But unfortunate people who does not have reading abilities, pictures are much better to describe something.
Well, according to Nielsen (1997), “people rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences.” A wordy webpage or document tends to strain audiences’ eyes, therefore turning audiences off. This is supported by Walsh (2006), whereby the author also agreed that “written text is only one part of the message, and no longer the dominant part.”
The picture above is an example of a page that is full of texts. Where most people do not like reading because it will make reader's eyes tired easily. Well as for the image above, it is a screenshot of a journal but I think that even though it is supposed to be dry and wordy but it can be changed as for the fonts or many adding some charts or pictures to make readers understand easily. Besides that, it is better if simple English can be used so that it can be understand easily by readers.
Reference Lists
Nielsen, J. 1997, How Users Read on the Web, viewed 10 September 2009,
www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
Putnis, P. & Petelin, R. 1996, "Writing to communicate", in Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney, pp. 223-263.
Reep, D. C. 2006, "Document Design". in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson/Longman, New York, p. 133-172
Schriver, A. K. 1997, "Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers." Wiley Computer Pub., New York.
Walsh, M. 2006, "'Textual Shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts". Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37
