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Writer and/or Document Designer (WAS: Serif or san serif? (Take I I))
Subject:Writer and/or Document Designer (WAS: Serif or san serif? (Take I I)) From:Lyn Worthen <Lyn -dot- Worthen -at- caselle -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Jun 2003 10:36:31 -0600
Diane - We're in exactly the same situation - only different.
Almost all of the web copy I've produced (about 15% of my overall portfolio)
has been formatted by a web designer on the team. In those cases, I deliver
content with a minimum of document design.
However, that's only the tip of the iceberg in my overall body of work.
With only two or three exceptions, all of the hardcopy material I've
produced (about 70% of my portfolio) has had a requirement to be delivered
directly to the printer. I'm both the writer and the document designer on
these. Same with e-learning presentations (the other 15% of my portfolio)-
they go out on the Web or on a CD just as I've written, designed, and
programmed them. A little more often in the past three years, I've been
asked to deliver content in PDF (usually a duplicate of the hardcopy
material). Again, dual writer/document designer hats.
So while I focus on quality of content, it's also my job to make sure it
looks good when it goes out the door. I've been doing this long enough that
I don't think about layout a lot - a little up front, if it's for a new
project that doesn't already have a defined layout, but mostly I just work
within the format I've chosen/designed/been given from the beginning.
I don't think my experience is unique in the industry, at least for those of
us who work in non-mega-corprate environments without the benefit of
designers and graphic artists on staff. It's been my experience &
observation that there are many of us who have to design our own documents
and take our own screen captures/draw our own graphics, etc. So while I can
agree with Andrew that we shouldn't focus on the "font fondling," and that
getting the content right has to take center stage, I think that effective
document design is often part and parcel of our work as technical
communicators.
L
-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Boos
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 9:26 AM
> Mark Baker wrote:
> Technical communicators are not, per se, page
> designers, though many as asked to take on this role.
> (Inadvisedly, in my view.)
Don't I wish!!!! However, the real world intrudes! Everything I have
produced in the past 10-years has gone online as HTML or help files. Only
incidentally has it been has it been hardcopy. Many times I'm the "page
designer" because there is no one else.
I wonder how many other writers find themselves in the same situation?
Diane
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