The Dynamics of Document Design

The first textbook that I bought for this MA course was a second-hand copy of Dynamics in Document Design by Karen A. Schriver [1]. It was one of the recommended texts in our technical writing module but, when I saw that it had been published in 1997, I wondered to myself how relevant an almost-25 year old book could be in today's fast-paced technical world. Very relevant, as it turned out.

As I worked my way through the chapters, I found myself nodding in agreement at the observations, recognizing my own reactions in many of the examples given. Drawing on numerous case studies involving different types of communication, Schriver provided before and after examples to illustrate to writers and designers how to create more effective documents. Also included in the book was an interesting timeline of document design from 1900-1945. I noted the glaring omission of George Orwell's seminal 1946 paper, Politics and the English Language [2] that I wrote about in an earlier blog; however, Schriver corrected that by including it in a later paper [3].

I soon discovered that this book is the very definition of a 'classic' in the technical writing genre. Many of the theories and techniques proposed by Schriver are still in use today. In 1997, technical writing was still an evolving field of expertise but, by researching how people actually interpret words and pictures, Schriver showed that readers don't just aim to understand a document, they often respond emotionally to the visual layout and design. 

Image source

As an 80s child, I particularly enjoyed the VCR case study in Chapter 4, assessing the installation and operational instructions for a video recorder machine. The term 'creeping featurism' was mentioned - the bane of many product designs nowadays as even the most simple of products can have a plethora of bewildering, often unnecessary, features. This was a design aspect we investigated in our TW5221 module so I was intrigued that the term was also being used a quarter of a century ago.

I recall my own dad struggling with that very issue when we ventured into the 'high-tech' world of owning and operating a VCR machine. Being exposed to this at a young age sowed the seeds of an endless fascination with technology which has never waned. I am thankful to have had a 'before and after technology' upbringing as it has made me endlessly appreciative of all the labour-saving devices that make our lives that little bit easier today.

What surprised and delighted me, in particular, about the book was the amount of information included about the early days of online information and the world wide web. We often think of the internet as a relatively new invention, especially since Web 2.0 protocols were only implemented in the mid-2000s [4]. However, in the late '90s, the internet was already a flourishing source of information, albeit without the incessant social media and insatiable need for users to share every single detail of the minutiae of their lives. Simpler times, I think, and we were probably the better off for it. 

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               "Design is the intermediary between information and understanding." ~ Hans Hoffman

References

[1] Schriver, K. (1997) Dynamics in Document Design, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

[2] Orwell, G. (1946) Politics and the English language, Horizon: A review of literature and art, vol. 13, issue 76, pp.252–265, GB, London.  

[3] Schriver, K.A. (2017) 'Plain language in the U.S gains momentum: 1940 – 2015', IEEE transactions on Professional Communication, vol. 60, no. 4.

[4] O'Reilly, T. (2005) What is Web 2.0? Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software, available: online [accessed 18 Feb]