Overview

Document design is just as important as content, organization, and writing style.  Without appropriate design and formatting, your audience will not understand how to read your document or they would have to spend considerable time trying to interpret the content. Document design “shows readers how to read a text: what the structure and progression is, what can be read or skipped, what is more important or less important” (Kramer & Bernhardt, 2004, p. 247).

Most of you are used to writing essays in your literature and composition classes, which means that you are comfortable with the traditional double spacing and indenting paragraphs.  This is not how documents are designed in technical communication; in fact, very rarely even are double spaced paragraphs included at all.

In technical communication, inclusion of white space between and around the text signals to the audience the grouping of information as a unit of meaning.  This active space is thoughtfully included in the document to show the audience what goes together, which is vastly different than just double spacing all paragraphs since this is a waste of useful space.

Elements of document design include grouping, alignment, contrast, balance, and consistency.