Chapter Introduction
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Goals of Document Design
Planning the Design of Print and Online Documents
GUIDELINES: Planning Your Design
Understanding Design Principles
PROXIMITY
ALIGNMENT
REPETITION
TUTORIAL: Proofreading for Format Consistency 
CONTRAST
Designing Print Documents
ACCESSING AIDS
CHOICES AND STRATEGIES: Creating Accessing Aids
PAGE LAYOUT
GUIDELINES: Understanding Learning Theory and Page Design
TECH TIP: How To Set Up Pages
COLUMNS
TYPOGRAPHY
ETHICS NOTE: Using Type Sizes Responsibly
TITLES AND HEADINGS
OTHER DESIGN FEATURES
TECH TIP: How To Create Borders and Screens
TECH TIP: How To Create Text Boxes
Analyzing Several Print-Document Designs
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ACTIVITY: Analyzing a Page Design
Designing Online Documents
USE DESIGN TO EMPHASIZE IMPORTANT INFORMATION
CREATE INFORMATIVE HEADERS AND FOOTERS
HELP READERS NAVIGATE THE DOCUMENT
GUIDELINES: Making Your Document Easy To Navigate
INCLUDE EXTRA FEATURES YOUR READERS MIGHT NEED
HELP READERS CONNECT WITH OTHERS
DESIGN FOR READERS WITH DISABILITIES
DESIGN FOR MULTICULTURAL AUDIENCES
ETHICS NOTE: Designing Legal and Honest Online Documents
AIM FOR SIMPLICITY
GUIDELINES: Designing Simple, Clear Web Pages
Analyzing Several Online-Document Designs
WRITER’S CHECKLIST
EXERCISES
CASE 7: Designing a Flyer and
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THE DESIGN OF a print or online document can help a writer achieve many goals: to entertain, to amaze, to intrigue, to sell. In technical communication, the goal is typically to help the reader learn something, perform a task, or accept a point of view. When you look at a well-designed page or screen, you intuitively understand how to use it.
Design refers to the physical appearance of print and online documents. For print documents, design features include binding, page size, typography, and use of color. For online documents, many of the same design elements apply, but there are unique elements, too. On a web page, for instance, there are navigation bars, headers and footers, and (sometimes) tables of contents and site maps.
The effectiveness of a document depends largely on how well it is designed, because readers see the document before they actually read it. In less than a second, the document makes an impression on them, one that might determine how well they read it—or even whether they decide to read it at all.