Independent study outline: Knowing what I don't know

[Becca <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Thank you all for your advice on things I should cover in my independent study on document design for technical writers.

following is the outline I submitted today to my adviser. I'd appreciate any feedback and suggestions people might have to make sure I'm covering the area of technical documentation design adequately.

(This is through the local community college, in the Graphics Design curriculum; I'll be learning InDesign at the same time I'm learning these principles and concepts)

Thanks,

Becca
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1.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Principles:
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Gestalt principles
b.ÂÂÂÂÂ Design principles
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ i.ÂÂÂÂÂ These are from the first 6Â chapters of The Non-Designerâs Design Book by
Williams)
c.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Theories of design (chapter 3 from Document
Design, Kimball and Hawkins)
2.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Page Layout
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Canons of page layout (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canons_of_page_construction)
b.ÂÂÂÂÂ Grids: Manuscript, column, modular
c.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Rule of thirds
d.ÂÂÂÂÂ Golden section
e.ÂÂÂÂÂ Negative space
f.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Chapters 4 and 5 of Document Design, Kimball and
Hawkins
3.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Cueing 
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Paragraph cues
b.ÂÂÂÂÂ Special information cues:Â notes, warnings, cautions
c.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ In-paragraph cueing to highlight information
4.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Typography
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Letters as shapes
b.ÂÂÂÂÂ Chapter 6 of Document Design, Kimball and
Hawkins
c.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ âJust my Typeâ by Simon Garfield
d.ÂÂÂÂÂ Serif v. sans serif: which to use?
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ i.ÂÂÂÂÂ I know it depends on the medium, but what if it
is to be both in print and on-line? (pdf)
e.ÂÂÂÂÂ Pairs of fonts that go well together
f.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Body fonts, headline fonts: beyond Times New
Roman and Arial
5.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Mid-term: analyzing an existing document (ENG 208)
based on these principles)
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Begin to design styles in InDesign for final
project
6.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Document Design
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Creating page layout, headers, footers, etc.
7.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Graphics
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ When to use
b.ÂÂÂÂÂ Beyond screen prints
c.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Chapter 7 of Document Design
8.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Color
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Chapter 8 of Document Design
9.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Advanced InDesign features
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Tables of Contents, Index, creating a book from
multiple files
10.ÂÂ Design issues for different delivery modalities
a.ÂÂÂÂÂÂ Mobile devices, tablets, 4:3Â v 9:16 ratios, ereaders, print, pdf
11.ÂÂ Presentation of final document 

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