Overview

Because of desktop publishing programs, employees have become responsible for all facets of document creation, including page design. Designing a page requires that you make the page accessible to the user. The user will make judgments about the value of your ideas and information based largely on the look and feel of the document in question. The user will make assumptions about your authority or credibility based on a visual response as well.

You should approach page design from the top down. Start with the overall look of the page itself and work your way down to the individual words and letters. How you arrange white space in a document is just as important as the text and graphics. As in other phases of technical writing, you will need to consider audience expectations and context when designing a page.

As page design has filtered down from professionals to the average worker, professional design concepts have filtered down as well. One is the consideration of white space as something more than that page before you put your content on it. White space has a psychological appeal that communicates more than you may have guessed. A page that is crammed full of content, with narrow margins and little white space inadvertently tells the reader that the production values are low, and that the document itself and perhaps the producers are cheap.

The reverse is true as well. You may be just the in-house person drafted to produce the company newsletter but if you have a sense of white space as an element of design and use it well and with openness, you can make your publication look like your company spent a lot of money on it and had it professionally done, even if you were working on the slimmest of budgets. That's because white space conveys attitude. It has snob appeal. It sits back and says 'I'm good. I don't have to nervously fill every little bit of space or shout with loud type. I can sit here and look lavish and rich with space to waste just for a pretty design.'

Just as people who work in sales will be required to drive expensive cars on sales calls, in document design, 'rich' has the same effect subliminally. This is a particularly important tip to remember in designing your resume.