Style Guides

A style guide describes the way that set of pages (or documents) will be made to look as though they belong together. You can read what wikipedia has to say about style guides.

Things to think about when designing a style guide include:

• Colour scheme


• Font selections, including size, style etc


• Headings and sub-headings


• Page layout


• Page numbering


• Headers and footers


• Alignment

In your second project this year, you need to consider how to show clearly which of the following topics each page relates to: Skills (AS 90368), Project (AS 90349) or Community Responsibilities (AS 90773). Ways of doing this include

• Putting the text in either header or footer


• Using a different coloured page heading


• Printing on different colour paper


• Having an icon or graphic that represents the topic


• Using a table of contents and/or appendices


• Designing a page with a space for Skills, Project, and Community Responsibilities to use for all work.

Remember that for your style guide to help your readers, you (may) need to explain it - no point in having a code if you don't tell people what it means. However some people would argue that really good design does not need explaining...

Extra for Experts:

• Which sorts of technologists use style guides?
• Why do technologists use style guides?
• Can you find any style guides?
• What sort of things are included in style guides?
• How might your knowledge of style guides "inform your practice"?