Enhancing Readability Through Document Design

When you compose a message, you want your audience to find the information it needs quickly and to understand what it finds. Your message should be easy to read and to comprehend. Well-designed documents enhance readability and comprehension. Understanding and employing the various design techniques that can be used to improve readability will make your messages more effective.

1. Headings / Fonts / Typefaces  define the shape of text characters.

Read the passage, and then answer the question.

Our Writer’s Workshop registration process has four steps: complete the registration form, select the workshops you will attend, submit your electronic portfolio, and pay the tuition deposit.

2. What document design strategy would improve the readability and comprehension of this passage?

1) Using a numbered list

2) Using parallel construction

3) Using an appropriate typeface

Consider the following passage, and then answer the question.

The following list includes the stakeholders—ranked by level of impact—most affected by our closure. Employees will feel the greatest impact from our closure, followed by our customers, and then the community.

Employees

The employees who will lose their jobs are the stakeholders most affected by the shutdown of our company. The most critical issue faced by employees is the loss of income and the task of finding a new job in an economy where jobs are extremely scarce. We should provide laid-off employees with a severance package to help them while they seek and obtain a new job.

Customers will be affected

Customers are also stakeholders, and together they form a group we must take into consideration. Many consumers and other businesses depend on us. With our company no longer offering services, the customer group will have to find a new means of shipping, which could affect them in many different ways—from an increase in operations cost to a loss in business. Businesses and consumers must be made aware of our closure early enough to find alternative service providers to meet their shipping needs.

Community issues

Additionally, the closing of our company’s operations will affect the local community and economy in many surrounding areas. For example, Safford, Arizona, is one of many cities that will suffer from the loss of thousands of jobs. We need to assure residents that we will provide assistance for the affected areas through retraining and education initiatives.

3. Which design technique would improve the readability of this passage? Check all that apply.

1) Parallelism

2) Increased white space

3) Additional headings for impact