Document Design Guidelines
I don't know what forum this goes in. Sorry if this is the wrong one.
So the place I'm working has ton of documents that are all out of date. When my boss updates one he always does in the format he "designed" and it looks like it came out of a teletype machine you know like ....
[CENTER]DEPARTMENT OF RADIOLOGY
DIVISION OF MOLECULAR IMAGING
MRI PROTOCOL #23423O234
blah blah blah here's what you actually need to know[/CENTER]
To me it looks so old and dated (the boss is past his 50s
). The least important stuff is UPPERCASE AND BOLD and most important stuff is pushed way down the page.
I'm a unworthy devote to Edward Tufte so this type of stuff annoys the hell out of me.
My problem is that I don't have a solution other than "You know that all caps and bold centered is dated and old and takes the focus of the important stuff and emphasizes what we already know like where we work and what we do."
What I'm looking for is a web site or a book (like a Tufte book) that explains how to do good document layout and why it's good. Google searches turn up too little signal to noise. I'd like to come up with a new template for the boss and say "Hey look at this template it's a lot better and here's why..."
So the place I'm working has ton of documents that are all out of date. When my boss updates one he always does in the format he "designed" and it looks like it came out of a teletype machine you know like ....
[CENTER]DEPARTMENT OF RADIOLOGY
DIVISION OF MOLECULAR IMAGING
MRI PROTOCOL #23423O234
blah blah blah here's what you actually need to know[/CENTER]
To me it looks so old and dated (the boss is past his 50s
). The least important stuff is UPPERCASE AND BOLD and most important stuff is pushed way down the page.I'm a unworthy devote to Edward Tufte so this type of stuff annoys the hell out of me.
My problem is that I don't have a solution other than "You know that all caps and bold centered is dated and old and takes the focus of the important stuff and emphasizes what we already know like where we work and what we do."
What I'm looking for is a web site or a book (like a Tufte book) that explains how to do good document layout and why it's good. Google searches turn up too little signal to noise. I'd like to come up with a new template for the boss and say "Hey look at this template it's a lot better and here's why..."
Comments
http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Sheep.../dp/0201703394
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typog...419969?ie=UTF8
Are you aiming to be a graphic designer or are you already a graphic designer or are you just doing "technical documentation" or something...?
No. But it's no reason to do it badly.
Tufte is good for information visualisation but for typography these are CORE books:
http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Sheep.../dp/0201703394
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typog...419969?ie=UTF8
I hope I can find these at the book store. The first one looks promissing. Thanks