I've just begun my last in a series of three classes for an online Technical Writing Certificate with the California State University. This last course is on Information Design, and our textbook is Document Design: A Guide for Technical Communicators by Miles Kimball.
The CSU certificate program has done a really great job of mixing student participation, instructor participation, reading, assignments, and additional resources. It's a great blended learning environment.
I completed reading two and a half chapters as we're already into the third week of this class. But yesterday I took a deeper look into some of the other material that the book covers. I think I'm going to enjoy this textbook--and course!--a lot.
Much of the content in the book will serve as a good reminder/refresher of some of the document design concepts and techniques that I studied, a long time ago, in graphic design and journalism courses in college and post.
This time though, the stretch goal is to use a much more structured and logical approach, as we're applying a lot of the research and knowledge that's been gained in recent years, studying how users process, retain, and prefer to receive information. Good stuff!
The book has a good combination of organization, quick reading sections, and photos/figures to clarify concepts--the section on RGB alone is quite well developed, with enough detail but without going overboard.
A treat is that the course document design focus has more of an application for technical writing and the business world that can be applied across industries. And that's the whole point. Websites, reports, how-tos/guides, and business communications all have personalized audiences and topics, but the standards of good design apply to everything equally.
People nowadays have very little time to make an impression on potential customers or clients. It's important to convey clearly and in the best way possible any communication be it on a web site, email, or printed material.
This three course certificate was a stretch goal for myself, trying to span a bit of a gap I've struggled with since I first started studying about websites and programming in 1998. I've been a fan of techie things since forever and would love to get into IT one day. I may still dabble a little in programming in some courses I may take next. I'll see.
This certificate program has done much to reveal some personal and professional gaps that I can fill, and all around, it has been a great learning opportunity. I'm glad I have taken this up.
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