Technical Communications Report
Summary
This technical communications report began as a class assignment during my Certificate in Technical Writing and Editing at the University of Washington, however, by the end had become a comprehensive resource. I began the report in HCDE 421 Current Practices in Technical Communication, but revisited the project in HCDE 427 Visual Design. The original assignment was called a “letter report.” The expectations were to respond to an inquiry about the technical communications field, research the questions raised, and respond with a well laid out report including graphical elements. The original report focused on content and structure, while the redesign focused on document usability and visual aesthetic.
During the redesign, I looked at the use of white space, alignment, pagination, and typography. I began by giving the document a more paginated feel, creating a left and right page, and building a healthy margin to balance all the text with more white space. Additionally, I did some work on the lines in the document, using a strong header on each page to form the skeletal structure of the layout. To help with navigation, I included the report title and section name along with the page number. I finished off the redesign with the strong juxtaposition of san serif headers and emphasis with a professional serif font for the body (Garamond Premiere Pro), with the idea that this would be primarily read as a printed document, rather than perused online. The result was a professional looking and aesthetically pleasing final product.
