Aesthetics isn't the only thing that you should be striving for when desiging a user manual template or the style sheet of an online help system. When creating technical documentation, usability, readability, and simplicity are at least just as crucial.
The design should please the eye, but at the same time it must communicate the content clearly. In addition, paragraph styles and character styles should be efficient to use for the author when writing the document. The layout process should be automated as much as possible. Because most user assistance documents are frequently updated during theit life cycle, an automated layout process is much more important here than with other kinds of literature.
Setting up templates and style sheets that are efficient to use when creating and updating user assistance requires a lot of experience in technical writing. The rules presented in this book are the essence of this experience.
All chapters provide various examples that you can use for inspiration and as starting points for your own designs.
Words are not always the best medium for communicating technical information. Sometimes, a picture, a simple animation, or a short video can intuitively show within a few seconds what words can hardly describe.
However, there are also cases in which pictures are too complicated and videos are too slow in conveying information. For effective technical communication, images and videos need to be used exactly where they are most efficient, and they need to be designed to clearly convey their particular message.
This book shows you the principles of creating effective visuals.
Topics covered:
Choosing the right medium and place: What works best in a particular case: Text? Images? Animations? Videos? Interactive components? How many images should you include, and where should you put them?
Common basics of visualization: General design principles that apply to both creating images and creating videos.
Images in general: Fundamental tips for creating effective images, no matter what these images show.
Images of hardware: Particular tips for creating drawings and photos that show physical devices.
Images of software: Particular tips for creating screenshots and other images of software.
Video design: Tips for creating effective instructional videos, as well as solutions for embedding these videos into technical documentation.
Video production: Tips on how to organize the creation of instructional videos and on the underlying technologies.
Interactive content: Ideas for implementing interactive components, such as interactive 2D and 3D images, hypervideos, and augmented reality applications.
Like all the books of the Technical Documentation Best Practices Series, the book focuses on practical tips and examples that are easy to implement in real projects. In case you don't create your visuals yourself but instead assign this task to a graphic designer or to an agency, the book makes you a competent client and gives you the expertise to review the results critically.
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