- Dec 2016
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techwritingf16.robinwharton.net techwritingf16.robinwharton.net
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Icons, simply because they are pictorial, are neither necessarily easy to interpret nor interpreted uniformly. Consequently, consider the following strategies w'hen using icons.
This excerpt reminds me of emoticons and emojis. On different monitors the emoticons and emojis literally convey different expressions to the viewers and readers. On Apple products the emoticon that is expressing what can be conveyed as happiness on android and other brands of products that same emoticon is expressed as what would be sought out as an angry expression. This is important to remember when considering using emoticons and other icons because their intentional use may be misconstrued conveying a very different message.
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Figure 8. Visuals are much better suited than text to convey non-linear— especially hierarchical —relationships
Figure 8 advises to use visuals rather than text. An example of this would be to use charts to display statistics or values of money rather than sentences full of numbers. This will not intimidate the viewers and readers. Allowing them to completely understand what the writer is intending to convey.
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In our efforts to ensure that text is readable, wre can draw on knowledge gained from literally hundreds of years of practice in the art of typography as w-7ell as recent research that specifically addresses the special typographical challenges posed by the comparatively low7 resolution of today’s computer screens.
Thinking back to the service learning project... I created a Mailchimp tutorial guide but typed it using the font Comic Sans. This text was readable but, if I were to have done my research I would have found that this font is not a good one to use at all for professional documents. This has been recorded from other professionals in the past and this particular information is easily accessible.
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pool (1999), Nielsen (2000), and a number of other contemporary observers of Web user behavior argue that Web site visitors don’t actually read continuous text but simply skim a site’s content
This has been discussed many times when working on site based assignments in class this semester. This is helpful information because as anyone now a day's with any type of site is somewhat of a technical writer and this information is important when including large blocks of text. Most people today do not have that much time on their hands to read large blocks of text. So taking that into consideration will allow a writer to save not only their time but maximize their viewer/readers experience.
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Elements that are visually grouped (see Figure 4) will likely be perceived as “associated” with one another.
I found this sentence interesting because in a past classroom lecture we learned about how words, pictures or even symbols can be grouped in such a way that they can convey a single message. When discussing creating the info graphic just before election time we saw perfect example of how this statement can be described and explained.
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In 1.1. it discusses making sure that the visual elements displayed are large enough to be seen and interpreted. While working on the service learning client packet this was heavily discussed when making suggestions for the site update for LOLC. On that particular webpage we took notice that the visual elements being the pictures. The photos throughout this site were all stock photos. In relation to this article the stock photos are being interpreted as not personal and they don't give a genuine feel to the day care than if it were to display actual photos that were taken at the day care.
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Finally, it’s important to acknowledge in the design of information to be displayed on a screen that screens differ from pages in some very fundamental ways. Screens, for example, may be smaller than pages, at least in the sense that they often display fewer lines of type than a typical paper page. Screens are also customarily oriented differently than paper—they are typically wider than they are tall. The images displayed on screens are also often more crude than those printed on paper, and, unlike paper, screens transmit light rather than reflect it
I found this important to take into consideration when beginning to create the personal profile. Accessibility is the major key to making a display screen that will differ to its pages. When creating a web page this should be remembered. As a designer you are going to want to make it so that your viewer will be able to see the display as it was originally intended to on any device or screen. The interpretation as mentioned earlier may be off.
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1.2 Avoid “busy” or distracting backgrounds.
This was discussed in class and was suggested when creating our personal profiles. I have learned that the bright backgrounds need contrasting colors so that they are not so harsh to the eye. Or even because taking into consideration that there are people with color blind disabilities so making it a color that will be visible and appealing to every eye is important when choosing a background.
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