Workshop Summary --
Polishing Your Pictures: Getting Graphic with Technical Information

by Elaine Ruddock, Education Manager

On October 29, 2003, the Southwestern Ontario Chapter STC hosted Polishing Your Pictures: getting graphic with technical information. The workshop, presented by Patrick Hofmann -- a Visual Interaction Designer at Quarry Integrated Communications -- was held at The Pines banquet facility in Cambridge.

Riddled with typical Hofmann humour, Patrick covered a multitude of topics, including:

• choosing the appropriate format;
• troubleshooting graphics;
• creating templates for graphics; and
• maximizing the meaning of graphics.

Presented in great detail -- in a very entertaining fashion -- the day-long workshop provided useful information for technical communicators who have to create systems architectures, work with screen captures, or create graphics from scratch. Participants brought examples for discussion, and everyone participated in a hands-on exercise that focused on using shortcuts to create graphics.

For those of you who were unable to attend the workshop, the following is an exerpt, from one of Patrick's articles, that summarizes some key points about creating visuals.

1. Keep it brief. In writing, we try to simplify our wording and include only what is vitally necessary, so that our message is as easy to read as possible. Likewise in illustrations, if we include only what is vitally necessary to the message of the illustration, we eliminate visual traffic.
2. Make it task-oriented. In writing, we aim to make our instructional information as actionable as possible. Likewise in illustrations, we should spend less time conveying the object in its anatomically perfect form, and instead, illustrate the object so that it clearly conveys an instruction.
3. Be consistent. In writing, we use wording conventions and structures that bring consistency and expectation to our text. Likewise in illustrations, we should be consistent with sizes, angles, views, and so on. By repeating a common illustration and making slight modifications to it, we bring consistency to the document and we amplify the change in meaning between illustrations.

And these are just three basic, high-level rules that only begin to scratch the surface. By applying such rules to visuals, not only do we improve the value of visual information in our documents, we improve the value of our role in the production of our documents. As technical writers and authors, we can become advocates, ambassadors, and architects of meaning in visuals. Whether in words or in pictures, we are the maximizers of meaning for the information.

As a Visual Interaction Designer, Patrick Hofmann is "a man of few words". At Quarry Integrated Communications in Waterloo, he builds award-winning visual design strategies to improve online, hardcopy, and interface information.