Dynamics in Document Design

by Karen A. Schriver

Book Overview

From an international leader in document design, research-based insights about writing and visualizing documents that people can use . . . This book is for writers and graphic designers who create the many types of documents people use every day at home or school, in business or government. From high-tech instruction manuals and textbooks to health communications and information graphics, to online information and World Wide Web pages, this book offers...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471306363
• ISBN13: 9780471306368
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 559 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The resource I keep coming back to...

This book is the most useful one I've found on the subject. Design books of all stripes (document-design focused or otherwise) have a tendency to provide "principles" without ever providing real support for said principles. Books will be loaded with recommendations that may or may not be well supported by data, quantified or at least well documented study results, etc. Schriver's book does exactly the opposite, and this is why it is longer than many others. It is impossible to read about Schriver's document design principles and not know exactly where they came from. Virtually every recommendation is, for once, well supported by research findings. This book never tells you to do something without first explaining why it should be done. If you're looking for a short-and-sweet book that conveys the most basic principles of document design ("principles" that may in fact be a designer's personal preferences), this isn't it. If you're looking for a book that will help you make better design decisions and help you understand why to make these decisions over others, then this is the book for you. After all, it isn't so unusual for professional designers and others in the workplace to have to explain exactly why they've made certain choices over others, and this book can help.

The benchmark in its field

The reviewers who say this book is wordy and over-long just don't get it. This is not a "how to do it in five easy lessons" handbook. If you find a book like that - burn it! Books like that are usually self-published by amateurs who don't understand the complexities of the field, and they are worse than useless. In fact, they are often filled with advice that has been so oversimplified that it is actually wrong. You CANNOT learn document design in five easy lessons. Conversely, Schriver's book is a refreshingly thoughtful, well-researched, and comprehensive overview of document design. It starts with the history and philosophy of document design and continues through contemporary needs and trends. It contains especially strong advocacy for usability studies, including documentation of those conducted by the author and her colleagues. It's about time we document creators stopped "blaming the user" and started taking responsibility to make improvements when documents are hard to understand. Document design is a relatively new field of study, so the comprehensive timeline of its development is a gold mine, especially since no author has attempted it before. This type of in-depth research is sorely needed. Schriver explains things in a way that is clear and compelling, with lots of thoroughly documented examples and supporting charts, tables, and graphics for clarification. And her research spans several decades, which is invaluable for tracking the evolution of document design. She has produced an unparalleled work which will be the benchmark against which other books are measured for a long time.

What a wonderful book!

For years I've purchased almost every book on writing and design I could get my hands on. This one ranks up there with the very best of what I've seen such as Edward Tufte. Actually, I like this one better because it is not vacuous about what cognitive art means. Tufte claims to tell us about how people respond to text but he never gives any data. How strange for a statistics prof! Schriver offers studies in which we see reader after reader responding to a real document. I very much liked hearing the voices of the audience and seeing what they said. BTW I noticed that one reviewer below chastizes Schriver's book, presumably for poor editing. However, in looking at the page he refers to, HE not Schriver introduces the typing error. Get a clue before you review! I found the writing very clear and personal. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to meet the needs of their audiences.

A very usable document about designing usable documents

As a designer of technical documentation for almost 12 years, I have studied, and used many of the concepts that Karen Schriver presents so well, in this definitive book on documentation design. For myself, finding this information and learning how to apply it to real-world situations was been a long and frustrating process, and there were many times when I wished for a book such as this.Dynamics in Document Design is not a how-to book, nor is it a set of guidelines. It is information compiled from extensive research that provides designers and writers with the many variables that can be used to make a document accessible to the reader.I am currently teaching document design as part of a technical writing certificate program at a local community college and Dynamics in Document Design is our recommended textbook. I am confident that Shriver's new book will become the reference bible for what many are referring to as the "emerging field" of document design (even though it has been emerging for more than a decade).In her Preface, Shriver states that she "...decided to write this book because it has been difficult to find resources devoted to helping document designers reflect on the nature of good writing and design from the perspective of the reader." Thank you Ms Schriver!This book should be read, not only by designers and writers, but just as importantly, by the companies whose products require documentation. I'm sure that many will be surprised by the correlations made between the quality of a product's documentation and the perceived quality of the product itself.I can't say enough good things about this book. Buy it and read it and use it to create good usable documentation!

Schriver is Tufte for writers!

Blew me away! Now, all we need is _Dynamics for Dummies_ because I can't get others to crack open the 600 page binding. This is the definitive book on document design, and covers the harder task of demonstrating that a document is successfully designed. One of the best highly technical books I've ever read. Covers history, modern practice, theory, links to other fields, etc. for lots of writing and communication issues. Slightly politically biased, which is one of the risks of a subjective writing style.