[ATTW-L] Document Design

[Steve]

Hi Derek,

A lot relies on whether students are creating documents or throwing bricks out of the ivory tower at people creating documents. My guess is that with the lab you run, they're creating documents, though the Norman makes me unsure. Then it really depends on what kind of documents they're designing. FWIW, if it fits your expectations, you may want to consider Research and Documentation in the Digital Age by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister, as it should be robust enough for a graduate level course, though I used it in my undergrad course at Dartmouth a few years back without complaint, class on science and technology writing and presentation. We also used A. H. Hofmann's Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations. I've used many other document creation texts, of course, in Web design or information design classes. Really depends on whether they're doing theory or practice, or, preferably, both. In practice, I like students to design document elements such as schematics and infographics, and one of the best ways to have them do that is accessing an online service or app dedicated to the task. Document creation is a fun, enjoyable, and rewarding enterprise. I envy your graduate students having the opportunity to now learn it in 2020.

Hope that helps.

Best,

Steve Thompson
-------
Steven John Thompson, PhD
Professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
Editor, Handbook of Research on Machine Ethics and Morality (Forthcoming, 2021)

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‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Tuesday, April 14, 2020 6:14 PM, Derek Ross <derek.ross at auburn.edu> wrote:

> Hi All:
>
> First, I hope you are all safe and sane in these trying times!
>
> Second, I could use your input. I’m teaching a graduate level course on Document Design in the Fall. I’ve taught the course off and on for over a decade now, and I’d like to update my core texts. I’ve found that a good, solid grounding book really helps—I’ve used Karen Schriver’s work, and Kimball & Hawkins, and I love them both. They are both, however, out of print, and don’t offer all of the resources that I might need if we end up doing this thing in an online or hybrid model. What should I be using?
>
> I’ve already got Don Norman’s Design of Everyday Things in my maybe-basket, as well as Cairo’s Functional Art. And maybe Wyatt and Devoss’s Type Matters, along with plenty of wonderful pieces of new scholarship from our various journals. What are your must-haves?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Derek
>
> Derek G. Ross
>
> Editor, [Communication Design Quarterly](https://sigdoc.acm.org/publication/)
>
> Co-Director, [Laboratory for Usability, Communication, Interaction, and Accessibility](http://cla.auburn.edu/lucia/)
>
> Department of English, 9030 Haley Center
> Auburn University, AL 36849-5203
>
> 334-844-9073
>
> [http://www.derekross.com](http://www.derekross.com/)
>
> Pronouns: he/him/his
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