Why is Consistency Important in Information Design?

When presenting information, you as a designer need to ensure that you are consistent in how you present your text. For example, you must be consistent in

• vocabulary and form of words,
• tone,
• format, and
• tense.

Consistency creates a professionalism on your document that shows that you have put thought into your work, that you know how to present the information, and that you pay attention to detail.

Vocabulary and Form of Words

Use consistent vocabulary—strong, accurate, definitive terms—in informative or instructional text so your readers know what to expect and are not guessing about a term. Too many synonyms can confuse your reader, and sometimes, synonyms are similar but not exact. Also, when using synonyms, you may run out of strong words and use trite synonyms—nice, great, strong, etc.—which damage your credibility through nonspecific language. Using synonyms also complicates your ability to apply an old/new pattern, which improves the flow of your narrative by creating natural transitions between sentences. (I address the old/new pattern in a previous blog post.)

Frequently, my students complain that using consistent vocabulary—using a term over and over in the text—sounds redundant and immature, as if the writer has a limited vocabulary. They may use pronouns (and sometimes, they create modifier issues by using vague or misplaced pronouns) in lieu of a term to create variance in the text. Variance is acceptable, but you must ensure that the reader can follow your thought process, and consistency in your vocabulary will help your reader.

Tone

Use a consistent tone in your text to present yourself professionally and to not distract your reader. If you begin with a formal tone, using technical words and a professional tone, and then change your tone or add "noise"—unanticipated humor, informal language, slang, inappropriate content (like a story in the middle of instructions—you damage your credibility and confuse your reader.

Format

Use a consistent format when presenting your information. Format is focused more on design elements—e.g., font type, size, bold/italics, and inclusion of rules under headings—but format helps the reader to navigate through the document, understand the hierarchy of the text (e.g., headings versus subheadings), and find information faster. Consistent format allows the reader to understand your organization and also makes your document appear more credible and professional. Have you ever seen a Web page that had headings in different colors or sizes? And if you noticed the inconsistency, did you create an opinion about the page or the writer? Format needs to be consistent (and aesthetically pleasing, a discussion beyond the scope of this post) so the reader can focus on what you are saying rather than on apparent errors in your format.

(For consistent format, use a cascading style sheet for Web pages or a template for your blog. You can also create a style sheet in Microsoft Word. These style sheets allow you to apply a previously established format rather than guessing each time you need to format text, an image, a caption, or another element of your document.)

Tense

Consistency in tense is necessary to accurately communicate when an action has happened, is happening, or will happen. Thus, consistent tenses affect the information that you share with your reader. American's struggle with verb tenses, probably because writers do not understand them. My students tell me that they get confused when we begin to talk about imperfect, conditional, perfect, past, present, future,... and they confuse "voice" with "tense."

Tense is related to time, so set your mind on a time and be consistent in presenting that time. APA style recommends that reference to authors is always in past tense because the writer has already published the intellectual property we are referencing. Keeping that in mind has helped me to use tense more consistently in my writing.

Also, focusing on the purpose of a particular part of a document—e.g., future for a timeline in a proposal, past in the reporting of a progress report, present in discussing opinion in a blog post—can help you keep your tense consistent.

Why are Style Guides SO Important?

A style guide is a document that you, the author, create to ensure that you are consistent throughout a document.

Needing a style guide

The document is organic—i.e., you add to it each time you identify an element in your document—a word, a source, a process, a design element, a format standard—that you will use later in the document and that you need to present consistently. For example, if you are writing about information design, do you write

• Web site,
• Website,
• website, or
• web site?

(As a medical writer, I often need to identify if the document I am writing refers to "health care" or "healthcare.")

Choosing a standard

Frequently, you think you will be consistent, but in different settings with different sources, you may change your style or begin to question what standard you were following. And you do not want to constantly go through the text to find certain standards so you can be consistent. A style guide helps you maintain that consistency by providing you with an offline document that you can reference for your established standards. The style guide becomes even more important if you are collaborating and need to provide the standards to other writers.

College students already know MLA

My students question me when I assign a style guide, but most of them have only been exposed to MLA style (through high school classes or freshman rhetoric), so they do not understand the need for a style guide or the uses of a style guide.

Once they begin to create their own documents—and I assign a 12-post blog for my information design class—they realize that being consistent is not always as easy as it sounds. Therefore, they create a style guide that enables me to know their personal style standards so I can reference their guides when I grade. I particularly need this to know how they are citing sources in their blogs, because I allow them to create their own citation styles.

Students need to learn other styles

Some of them choose to use APA or Wikipedia's style, but some create their own styles, and the style guide informs me of what standard the student has established.

In class, we use APA for citations, and we consider other documents (specifically Web sites and blogs) to analyze the designers' consistency. By using APA, the students learn to visit an already established style guide and apply the standards, paying attention to details and formatting per the prescribed guide.

In my engineering class, students use IEEE because the style is relevant to what they will use in the workplace and when they publish their findings. IEEE's style guide has numerous versions and contains inconsistencies, so students are instructed to choose a standard and use it throughout their documents. They are also taught how to work through the citation process as they write a collaborative research paper so they can accurately cite sources that another writer has referenced.

I use a style guide as the editorial assistant for Technical Communication Quarterly. We publish the style guide online so authors can reference the guide, but my job is to know the style guide and apply it to all articles before we publish. I have also used style guides when I have edited larger works, like medical textbooks.

Style guides help us be consistent

Style guides help us to be consistent, which helps our readers (We do not distract or confuse them.) and also helps us to present ourselves professionally, showing that we are attentive to detail.

Why Do We Address Ethics When We Present Information Online?

As information designers, we need to be aware of how we present information and the ethical responsibility that we take on when we share information with audiences online. Audience members are seeking more and more information via the Internet and through the World Wide Web, and those who provide that information must be aware of the quality of information that they publish.

What is "Ethics"?

How do we identify if we are presenting information ethically? Ethics is the state of living rightly, but communicating ethically requires that we consider how the audience will consider and use the information (personal communication, F. Kemp, August 2012). That is, we must know our audience and understand the perspective that the audience will have when audience members consume the information. And we need to ensure that we provide enough information for the safety of our readers.

For example, if you are publishing a blog about canine care, you must ensure that you are providing information that is appropriate for the audience. You would be writing unethically if you wrote a blog with a general audience but you wrote about veterinarian medicine and showed images of vet surgery.

Even more important, if you are publishing a Web site about hiking, you must ensure that you consider your reader's safety: You warn your audience members of possible hazards that they may face when they hike, and you need to address precautions that they must take when they use your information to go hiking.

Why do Ethics Matter in Content Design?

Frequently, we do not consider our ethical responsibility when we publish online. But we need to think through how we design and present information; we need to analyze all constraints and elements that can affect our writing before we write. We need to plan. We need to consider writing as a process: not just sitting at the computer and typing a message but analyzing the working through the writing process, as I addressed in my previous post about the writing process.

Ethics are important when we write because as information designers, we are a source of information for our readers. We are responsible for effectively and accurately providing information, and we build our credibility with our audience members if we consider what is "right" and provide them with accurate information that they can trust. We do good for ourselves and for our audience. 

Why Should I Ask a Peer to Edit My Work?

Peer editing is a sure way to ensure that your post is addressing your audience well and that you catch all mistakes or issues that you might have missed in your own work. A peer can give you candid feedback, particularly if you establish that for which you want the editor to seek. That is, let your editor know if you have concerns but also allow your editor to look for issues that you might have missed.

In the past, I have had peer editors catch mistakes in punctuation and spelling, in verb tenses, in citations and missing references, in poorly stated arguments, in ambiguity, and in other style and mechanics. No matter what the editor says, do not take the comments personally but recognize that an editor can make you look better.

A peer editor can work off a printed copy of your page, can work on text in an electronic document (like Word or Google Docs), or can work in the actual virtual space where you are publishing. I never suggest that you give your password to your editor, but you can login and allow the editor to work directly in the space. The issue with this is that if the editor makes a change with which you might not agree, you may not see the change. The best way to get comments is to ask your editor to write on a printed copy or, better yet, to comment with tracked changes and comments in a word-processing document so you can review comments, learn from the editor's markings, and make the changes that you need.

When you do ask a peer to edit your work, allow enough time for the editor to give the document a quality review. If you procrastinate to get a late draft to your editor, your editor will need to rush through your work and thus may not be able to give you as quality of a review as possible.

What is the Writing Process?

Frequently, when we have a document to write, we sit down, write the document, and send it off—to our instructor, to our professor, to our colleagues, to our employer, or to our client—without going through the writing process...or without recognizing that we worked through the writing process. But writing a document is a process, and writers who work through the process tend to write more effective documents that more efficiently and concisely communicate with the audience.

So what are the steps of this process? Below, I will briefly describe the writing process, breaking it into steps and addressing the importance of each step.

Please note that I am writing in the first person, but the writing process may also involve a team of writers who bring different skills and roles to the process. So this description may apply to a collaborative writing process rather than the work of one person. 

Brainstorming

 The writing process beings with a thought: what am I writing about. This thought requires that I evaluate the document I'm writing and the rhetorical situation for that document. Therefore, I must ask

• Who is my audience for this document? What demographic information do I have for my audience? What knowledge of this topic does the audience have? What potential biases does the audience have? (My description of the audience should be more than a simple answer. Instead, the answer should include information about the audience's expectations, needs, previous experiences, feelings, thoughts, biases, etc. I must also consider the audience's knowledge base about the topic and the audience's reading level, as well as other characteristics that will affect my tone, my voice, my writing level, my terminology use, etc.)
  
• For what purpose am I writing this document? Am I seeing to inform or to persuade? What outcome do I want? What outcome do I expect? Has the audience requested this document—i.e., is my audience agreeing with this purpose, or am I approaching the audience with no previous contact? (My purpose must be defined before I begin planning the document. The purpose will determine what type of document I'm writing—e.g., a white paper, a proposal, a feasibility report, a lab report, a travel report, a progress report, a research report—and may also involve the genre of document I use—e.g., a presentation, a voice message, a formal letter, a blog post, an e-mail, a text, a memorandum, a report.)
  
• What constraints or limitations must I consider in regard to this document? How will the audience accept and read the document? Will this be a virtual, oral, or print document? What does the audience expect? Should I consider color, visuals, binding, and other document elements?

Once I evaluate the specifics of the audience, purpose, and constraints for the document, I need to think through how I will execute the creation of this document.

Planning 

The second step is planning. In this step, I identify the timeline, the cost (if any), and the manpower needs for the production of the document. If I'm going to need a team to help me or to consult with a subject matter expert, I will, at this point, evaluate my needs and involve those other players. I also need to consider the audience's needs and the client's requirements at this point.

In the planning stage, I need to take notes. If I'm working with a team, we may have an agenda for our meetings or I may take minutes when we meet. The documentation at this stage in the process is important because I may later need this information to ensure that I stay on task.

Outlining

Once I have identified the details of the document and have planned the process to accomplish the document, I need to outline the actual document. This requires that I know at this point what genre of document I'm creating so I can establish the "skeleton" of the document. This skeleton will help me to create the organization and the navigation—headings and subheadings—of the document.

Researching and Drafting

After creating a framework for the document, I begin to research the topic about which I'm writing and putting information into that framework. At this point, I must ensure that I record the sources for my information. If I work efficiently, I will save links to and copies of resources and will create bibliographic entries as I go through this stage: so that in later stages of the process, I am able to correctly cite my sources and I can quickly create a list of citations.

Research is an important step in the process, and the value of sources is important to consider at this point. In an academic or industry-focused document, you should seek to use peer-reviewed resources for your research. Peer-reviewed resources are those that have been reviewed by recognized experts in the field who provide constructive criticism to the author(s) of the resource. Typically, I search for peer-reviewed sources via academic databases (available through my university's library)—like EBSCO or LexisNexis—or via Google Scholar (which you can find through Google under "other.")

As I research, I document my sources using American Psychological Association (APA) style for my in-text and end-of-text citations. APA style is most frequently used format in industry. (Other styles include the Modern Language Association [MLA], American Medical Association [AMA], Chicago, and Turabian styles.) APA style is easy to use. For in-text citations, include the author(s) last name and year of publication in the text with page or paragraph numbers for quotes or paraphrases—e.g., Jones, 2008, p. 67. For end-of-text citations, follow similar patterns for books, chapters, articles, Web sites, and government documents; that format is available through the APA Style Guide, which is currently in its 6th edition, but I sometimes visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Web site's APA pages for examples.

After finishing my research and putting information into the structure of the document, I draft, using the old/new pattern for each paragraph to ensure that my narrative flows and I transition well from sentence to sentence.

Refining and Editing

Once I create a full draft of my document, I put the document aside so I can come back to look at the document with fresh eyes. Sometimes, I wait 2 hours, but sometimes, I pause the writing process as much as a week so I can return to the document.

After I pause, I return to the document and begin to refine and edit my writing, ensuring that I do not have voids in the research or construction of the document. I spend time refining the entire document (the big picture) but I also consider each paragraph and each sentence (the small picture).

Peer Editing

Once I have refined the document as much as I can, I send the document to a colleague and ask for constructive criticism. I typically ask specific questions, such as

• Is the structure appropriate for this audience and purpose?
• Am I addressing all elements that I need in the document?
• Is the tone, voice, and writing level appropriate?
• What voids do you see in the document?
• How can I improve the document?
• Do you see any errors?

For larger documents, I typically ask two colleagues to review and peer edit my document. This allows me to triangulate the review (provide three perspectives) and thus to ensure that we catch all the issues present in the document.

I then take the peer comments and apply those to the document, revising and refining further to address any issues that my colleague(s) identifies.

Proofreading

Once I have refined the document, I proofread the document. Typically, my colleagues have caught the issues (spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and style issues) in the document, but I find that every writer needs one last chance to go over the document. I read the entire document, particularly for mechanics and style, and frequently, I read paragraphs backwards so I can catch misspelled words.

At this point, I also check all sources to ensure that I have an end-of-text citation for each source with an in-text citation. And I also proofread all citations to eliminate errors.

Sometimes, I proofread two or three times. Proofreading is important because errors affect the audience's view of me and can damage my credibility and reputation as a source. This step is vital for the production of an ethical and professional document.

Finalizing

Once I've proofread the document, I finalize the document. If the document is a print document, I print a test version and look through it for issues. Then, I print on high-quality paper and present it with appropriate binding or a folder.

If I am publishing an online document, I copy paste and doublecheck formatting at this point.

I always leave plenty of time for this step in the process because I have seen projects fall apart at this point.

How Can I Improve My Writing?

I frequently have students ask me, "How can I improve my writing?" What they frequently mean is "How can I make a better grade in your class?" But my answer is the same for both questions: practice and immerse yourself in good writing.

Practice

Remember your mother telling you to practice? Practice your catching skills. Practice the piano or horn. Practice your penmanship. Practice.

Practice is an effective way to strengthen a skill, particularly if you practice effectively. (Devlounge, 2009, gives tips on how to improve practice.) The secret to practice is that if you repeat an activity over and over again, you strengthen your skill at that activity. We know that practice helps us to learn and strengthen a skill; thus, we wrote our names over and over again, repeated our multiplication tables, and frequently use software that we are seeking to learn. "Practice makes perfect," as endurance athlete Bergland (2011) explains in his article, "No. 1 Reason Practice Makes Perfect."

Practice trains the brain. So as you learn to use the old/new pattern in your writing, practice that pattern in all of your technical writing: e.g., in class reports, in emails, in texts. As you learn how to identify passive and active voices, use active as often as you can.

Immerse Yourself in Good Writing

Imitatio means "imitation," and if you immerse yourself in good writing—i.e., read the works of great writers and imitate their styles—you will strengthen your writing skills as well. Therefore, read other writers' works and identify what those writers do well. Then apply those strengths to your writing.

In many classical classrooms, students study, memorize, and imitate the great writers—e.g., Plato, Socrates, Locke. Then, as students begin to express their own opinions or report information in their own way, they adapt the strengths of these great writers to their own writing. In the same way, find strong writers and imitate what you appreciate about their styles.

Imitation does not mean you are copying their works; instead, you are learning from them and applying what you learn to your own writing.

References

Bergland, C. (2011, October 13). No. 1 reason practice makes perfect. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201110/no-1-reason-practice-makes-perfect

Devlounge. (2009, May 29). How to practice effectively to improve your skills. Retrieved from http://www.devlounge.net/strategy/practice-effectively-to-improve-skills

Why are Citations So Important?

Citations are important for three reasons:

• They provide credit for the originator of the intellectual property.
• They build a writer's credibility, accountability, and accuracy.
• They help you and the reader find sources that expand on the information related to what you cite.

Legally, we are required to give credit, but we as communicators and writers benefit from citations as well.

Credit the Source

When we cite our sources, we give credit to the creator for intellectual property (IP). IP is valuable and important in today's Internet-centered environment. IP includes ideas as well as material results of thought, such as music, art, writing, code, designs, logos, and other products of the creator's thought. Numerous lawsuits center around IP and involve copyright, trademark, and patent infringement. (For a recent list, see RFCExpress, 2012.)

You can protect yourself (and Vaughan-Nichols, 2011, has some ideas on how to protect yourself and your company) but you also must ensure that you don't infringe another creator's rights. Therefore, you must give credit when you use someone else's idea or words. You may NOT use IP in full (a full photo, piece of music, etc.) without written consent of the creator or unless the IP is in the public domain or your use is allowed by creative commons licensing (which I will address in a future post).

Build Your Credibility

Citing your sources is also valuable to build your credibility. If you provide a fact without providing sources, your audience may question you; however, if you provide sources for the information that you present, your audience realizes that you know what you are saying.

For example, on January 8, 2011, a man shot Senator Gabriella Giffords in the head (as reported in a story in the Huffington Post/AP, 2011), and the first reports we heard through the news and online were mixed: Did she die or didn't she? (Tenore, 2011, wrote a commentary on this topic.) Frequently, writers and reporters—sources of information—want to be the first to tell a story or share information, and if they do not carefully check and cite their sources, they damage their credibility. Citing your sources also makes you accountable for the information you share and ensures that if you share someone else's information, you are accurate.

Record Sources of Information

Finally, citations will help you and your reader go to sources of information so they can find your source and learn more about the topic about which you communicate. Many people use Wikipedia in this way: they go to a Wikipedia article to begin research and follow citations in the article to find more information. (This is an appropriate use for Wikipedia.)

References

Huffington Post/AP. (2011, January 8). Gabrielle Giffords shot: Congresswoman shot in Arizona. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/gabrielle-giffords-shot-c_n_806211.html

RFC Express. (2012). Your primary source for intellectual property lawsuits. Retrieved from http://www.rfcexpress.com

Tenore, M. J. (2011, January 10). Conflicting reports of Giffords' death were understandable, but not excusable. Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/113876/conflicting-reports-of-giffords-death-were-understandable-but-not-excusable

Vaughan-Nichols, S. (2011, December 28). The CIO's nightmare: Intellectual property lawsuits. Retrieved from http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Feature-Articles/The-CIO-s-Nightmare-Intellectual-Property-Lawsuits/ba-p/1168

How Can I Improve the Transition between Sentences in my Paragraphs?

We can improve transitions between sentences by integrating what is called an "old–new pattern"—a pattern of nouns that links sentences in a paragraph by putting the information already presented in a paragraph—the "old" information—at the beginning of the sentence and placing new information—that which the reader has not yet read about—at the end of the sentence. The old–new pattern improves the flow of the narrative in a paragraph. The pattern also helps the reader to work through the paragraph, moving from familiar to new information.

Importance of the Old/New Pattern

Why is this important? Why use the old/new pattern in our writing? Well, if we as writers are going to write for our audience and put the readers' needs as our priority and focus on helping the reader to consume the information and follow through with the purpose for which our writing is intended, then we must present information simply and in a way that the reader can work through easily, effectively, and efficiently.

In addition, this pattern reflects how we learn. We review information that we already know and establish that strong foundation and then we build on that with new information.

Readers must be able to work through the text without having to make an effort to read. If they need to stop reading during the process to figure out poorly presented and choppy text that does not transition well, they will lose motivation, especially in online documents, and move to another source for that information.

Instruction for Old/New Pattern

The first sentence of a paragraph is all "new"—that is, the writer has not presented that information yet to the reader. The second paragraph then needs to begin with a noun—a person, place, thing, or idea—that the writer presented in the second sentence and then link that to new information. The third sentence then begins with any noun that was presented in the first two sentences, and so on. This creates a flow of information, much like the links of a chain, that connects the sentences to each other and allows the reader to progress through the paragraph with the movement of the topics, the subjects.

I encourage my students to begin learning how to write with the old/new pattern by labeling each noun with a letter of the alphabet. So, the first noun in the first sentence of a paragraph is "A," the second is "B," and so on. Then, in the second sentence, consider the first noun: have you presented that noun, that topic, before? If so, then label it with the same letter you used in the first sentence; if not, then you need to rewrite the sentence to integrate the old–new pattern in that sentence. Rewrite to begin with information you have already presented and then move to information to which the reader has not yet been exposed.

For example, in this previous paragraph, note that I used "I," "students,""old/new pattern," "noun," "letter," and "alphabet" in the first sentence. I then began the next sentences with "noun," a word I'd already introduced in the first sentence. In the second sentence, I introduced "sentence," and I began the third sentence with reference to the "second sentence." Thus, I linked my sentences by beginning them with nouns (a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea) that I introduced earlier in the paragraph.

By using the old/new pattern, writers create a better flow and help their readers to transition more easily from sentence to sentence and thought to thought.

Justification: Why Do We Study Information Design and Usability?

As we produce information for the Web, our primary goal should be to inform our audience—those who will access our hypertext. Thus, we study information design so we can effectively provide that information and thus meet the needs and expectations of the readers who will visit our online texts.

This blog is a collection of general information about topics that I discuss with my undergraduate students.

What is Information Design?

Information design include a variety of topics, many of which I will discuss as I work through this blog. These topics include

• researching to ensure accuracy of the information and credibility of the writer;
• applying style principles and mechanics rules to ensure that the language is correct as well as clear and concise;
• formatting text so the reader can navigate the page and find information;
• organizing information in an inverted pyramid so the most important information is provided at the beginning of the page;
• writing effective headings and subheadings to direct the reader;
• integrating design principles that are not distracting or irritating;
• considering search engine optimization—e.g., keywords, links and backlinks, analytics, metatags—to improve access to the source;
• ethically and legally presenting information and so citing sources to give credit to the owners of intellectual property and acknowledging copyright; and
• providing the reader with information and keeping the reader's attention.

The first and most important principle of information design is to remember:

It's Not about You!

As "information designers," we must remember that everything we do needs to center on someone else: our reader. We must present text that interests the reader and in such a way that we maintain the reader's attention and communicate effectively to that person.

Thus, we also study usability. Usability is not the user's ability to use something but rather how the user uses the product. Thus, when we research usability, we observe how the user accomplishes a task but we also note what unanticipated actions or uses that user may expose in using the product. In other words, we watch and learn from what the user does.

In future posts, I will write more about these topics.