Document Design
Document design is often overlooked in technical communications programs. Persuasive writing (also known as rhetoric), editing, and formatting are typical hallmarks of communications programs, but well-rounded technical communicators must be able to develop vehicles for conveying ideas.
Template development and document design, including appropriate use of visual elements (e.g. white space, typography, user-centered navigation), are valuable skills for practicing and aspiring technical writers.
kr3c Templates: For the final project in PTC 605 Elements of Visual Design, I volunteered to develop a set of templates for a fictitious company, kr3c. The templates showcase various visual design elements without detracting from the technical content the templates are intended to hold. This link launches a page that provides a business card template, a professional letter template, a services invoice template, a documentation/white paper template, and a PowerPoint template.
Single Sourcing (179KB FrameMaker - currently not available): A single FrameMaker document that demonstrates the efficiency of single sourcing, where one source file can be tagged to generate multiple output files. In this example, conditional text is used in a FrameMaker source file to generate PDFs for two separate audiences, Linux users and Windows users.
Needs Analysis for Web-based Training (67KB PDF): A needs analysis study to determine requirements for a Web-based training (WBT) program. The topic of the WBT program is how to use Adobe FrameMaker.
Web-based Training Module for Adobe FrameMaker (94KB PDF): A Web-based training proposal for Adobe FrameMaker's conditional text feature. A supporting PPT file is also available.
Highway Gothic Typeface: For PTC 605 Elements of Visual Design, I maintained a visual design blog. The blog includes a post on the readability, legibility, and personality of Highway Gothic typeface, which is the dominant typeface for U.S. Interstate road signs.