Document Design Project:
Memo to the Client
If you were hired to design documents for a company, you would have to justify the choices you made. Although this is a class assignment (not a “real life” situation), the memo component of the project asks you to do the same thing — explain where and how the original document might be improved (criticism) and explain how the choices you made when redesigning the document improve design, reach the audience, and better facilitate the document’s purpose.
In addition, since I need to evaluate your work, your memo also provides me with the context and information I need to determine the effectiveness of the new design. Effectiveness depends on the specific writing context in which the document operates. A well-designed, rhetorically effective document created to appeal to working mothers would not be effective communicating to teenaged boys in the same way a document created to appeal to teenaged boys would not be effective communicating to working mothers.
The memo is an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the specific writing context, explain what motivated your choices, and demonstrate your conscious use of techniques that reflect the business/organization, the audience, and the purpose of the document.
What Motivates Design Choices?
Your design should be motivated by two things: general principles of design and specific communication goals.
- General principles of design: those that could apply to any document, for any purpose, aimed at any audience. These choices are fairly straightforward and common to lots of writing situations. Increasing the font size of the business contact information so it’s clearly readable is a choice (or a design strategy) that is appropriate for most documents.
- Specific communication goals: achieving the purpose and appealing to the audience within your specific writing context. These choices are often dependent on the context or writing situation. Adding more holly berries to give the document a more “holiday feel” IS NOT something that could apply to most documents. Using cool blues to communicate a relaxing dining atmosphere IS NOT something that could apply to any document. These types of choices are dependent on the rhetorical situation.
What Is The Rhetorical Situation?
Since these documents were generated by specific, knowable organizations/businesses, to achieve some specific purpose, and theoretically to appeal to some specific audience, you need to critique the existing design and explain your new design within the context of the rhetorical situation.
The rhetorical situation includes includes 1) the speaker, or the business/organization responsible for the document, the 2) purpose of the document, and the 3) audience of the document. (there are other elements, but those are the really important ones).
SPEAKER: How does the business/organization position themselves? What is their identity? Who are they, who do they want to be, and how do they want people to perceive them? What differentiates them from their competitors? What is their brand? (Are they innovative or experienced? High-cost and high quality, or low cost and high value? Known for speed or quality? Focused on luxury, efficiency, environmental friendliness?) Keep in mind, a business can’t be all things to all people.
The memo should communicate an understanding of the speaker (the business/organization responsible for the document): what it communicates about the speaker (in the original), and what it should communicate about the speaker (reflected in the revised document). It communicates:
- an understanding of the business’s/organization’s identity
- an understanding of what separates them from their competitors
- an understanding of how they should brand themselves to best communicate who they are, what they do, and how they want to be perceived by their target audience/s
PURPOSE: What does the business/organization want to have happen as a direct/immediate result of this document? What information do they need to include to accomplish their purpose? How will they accomplish their purpose (what is their approach?)
The memo should communicate an understanding of the document’s purpose: what it is (in the original) and what it should be (reflected in the revised document). It communicates:
- an understanding of document’s immediate purpose
- an understanding of document’s larger/overarching purpose
- an understanding of document’s approach to the purpose(s)
AUDIENCE: Who is the target audience? What is their age, interest, value, background, situation, etc.? What do they know/need to know? What are the benefits to them? What are possible objections? How is this audience likely to be persuaded? In what context is the audience likely to read the document? What is their attitude toward the document/situation?
The memo should communicate an understanding of the document’s audience: what it is (in the original) and what it should be (represented in the revised document). It communicates:
- an understanding of document’s targeted audience(s)
- an understanding of the meaningful considerations about the audience(s) (benefits, objections, appeals, context, know/need/want to know)
- an understanding of document’s approach(s) to the audience(s)
Memo Content
Your memo should address all of the items below.
- criticism of the original document (as a whole) and its design within the context of the specific rhetorical situation (speaker, audience, and purpose).
- criticism of the original document’s design within the context of general principles* for effective, professional document design.
- discussion/explanation of your revised document and its design within the context of achieving the purpose and appealing to the audience.
- discussion/explanation of the revised document’s design within the context of how it adheres to general principles* of effective, professional document design.
Memo Guidelines: Genre, Organization, and Style
In addition to including the content above, you must also communicate in a way that adheres to the tenets of good professional writing. Your writing should be clear, correct, and concise; be well organized and easy to read/understand; consider the audience of your writing (the business/organization responsible for the original document) in using techniques to avoid directly criticizing the reader, emphasizing reader benefits, using reader-centered writing, etc.
Guidelines: Memos should be written to the client, formatted according to genre conventions, and be no longer than two pages (12 point font, single spaced with an additional space between paragraphs). Consider headings/subheadings to facilitate organization and readability.
Discussion & Suggestions: With only two pages to work with, you probably won’t have an opportunity to address every single detail of the existing document. Instead, you might focus on the most important criticisms/elements, or perhaps group critique of individual elements into larger, more coherent groupings. Your job is to make purposeful choices about what information to include and purposeful choices about how best to organize that information.
While the maximum page length of the memo means you’ll probably be more direct with the client, you should still use tenets of good professional writing: deemphasize the client’s responsibility for “bad” design, focus on reader benefits, use positive language instead of negative language (when possible).
For the same reasons above, you won’t have space to discuss every minute design decision you made or every element you included. Instead, perhaps focus on a few design goals you had and how you achieved them, or present a strategy and explain how the design elements work together to implement it. (For example, you could discuss, broadly, how you improved overall usability of the document by making it better adhere to the conventions of its genre, and/or how you improved the overall aesthetic by working with colors with less/more contrast, used more professional fonts, etc.)