Earnest - Week Three Blog

This week we focused on word processing and desktop publishing. I had to define the two in my own words and I found that a little difficult since I believe they are getting more and more alike. However, in my mind, I still think of word processing as being more a home/small office program while desktop publishing is used in business and industry for professional purposes. I must state, though, that word processing, while easier perhaps to learn, does give you the ability to produce very professional-looking documents, so we should never discount its usefulness.

I reviewed some of the documents I've produced for our school district over the years and found that I use more graphics now and have a more professional look to my documents, such as using columns that are fully justified with a header piece. My daughter is a professional graphic artist working for a university, so I have learned a great deal from her about making even the simplest of documents look inviting to the reader. The thing we have to watch is not to place too many elements on the page so that it becomes cluttered and unreadable. I have seen some truly dysfunctional documents and web pages just because someone tried to be cute or fancy and in the process, put way too many elements on the page.

Another thing to remember when producing documents is that we should always target a 7th or 8th grade reading level (or even lower). Especially for families whose primary language may not be English, this is important. We don't ever want a parent/guardian or a student or a community member not to be able to have access to information just because they cannot read and understand what we are producing.

As far as what makes items visually appealing, I think the use of color is important. Again, though, remember that you may have some users who are colorblind, so be mindful of that as you design your product. I would not use more than 25% of the page for pictures, graphs, clipart, etc. I think more than that begins to distract from your message. I have learned in the past few months that using the font Century Gothic is best since it is a larger font than most (even in size 12) and it uses less ink to print. Use of a strong font is also important when producing documents - it needs to be easily readable. Some of the fancier fonts are nice, but they are just not conducive to readability.

I chose as my project to recreate a business card. I had designed a business card before just putting in a few elements and no graphics at all. It just wasn't very appealing and really did not give all of the contact information that should be available to my "customers". So I redesigned the card, utilizing a simple two-color idea with my name and e-mail address in a color that matched the tiger graphic that I selected. I think even with all the information on there, it is readable and the tiger catches your eye. This is something that I can use to give co-workers, parents/guardians, community members, or even colleagues across the state and those I meet at conferences and such. I think having a professional style business card, even one that is quickly made using word processing or desktop publishing, is a step in the right direction with what I've learned this week.