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>Editing by Design, by Jan V. White, 2nd edition, New York:R. R. Bowker Co.,
>1982.
I second this nomination, but I'd also mention Jan White's
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR THE ELECTRONIC AGE (Watson-Guptill, 1988).
For a good overview of document design principles, and a helpful
bibliography, see Martha Andrews Nord and Beth Tanner's chapter
"Design That Delivers" in the Barnum and Carliner collection
TECHNIQUES FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATORS (Macmillan, 1993).
Also good on basic design is James Hartley's DESIGNING
INSTRUCTIONAL TEXT (2nd ed., Kogan Page, 1987)--there might
be a third edition of this, though I haven't seen it.
Hartley's discussion is more traditionally focused on
print instructional text--but helpful nonetheless.
Nobody talks much about "document packaging"--but I see
that as an important part of document design: What format
should the thing be? Online vs. print? brochure vs. pocket
folder vs. looseleaf binder vs. bound booklet vs.
hypertext (interactive vs. non) vs. GIF file vs. e-mail.
Etc. Etc. I like Michael Floreak's discussion of this issue
in his 1989 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION article on designing for
real audiences.
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Jim Porter
Purdue University
jporter -at- mace -dot- cc -dot- purdue -dot- edu
