Software used:
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Acrobat
Skills used:
- UX design
- Color design and theory
- Best practices for readability and usability in documents
This project highlights my skills with:
- Thoughtful design informed by factors relevant to the project.
- Working knowledge of accessibility features.
- Experience with the Adobe Creative Cloud suite.
Background
I was asked to evaluate and edit a multipage document. This document is the Service Policy for the Longview Public Library in Longview, Texas.
The original document had multiple issues that impacted the user experience, such as inconsistent text hierarchy, hard-to-read text, and a lack of accessibility features. I chose to use Adobe InDesign to complete this task.
This project was completed in February 2025.
Page Layout and Design
To begin the restructuring of this document, I used the Page Guides feature to plan my page layout.
I used a left-aligned grid design to create a narrower margin, increasing readability. I also incorporated header and footer bars, which provided space for section titles and page numbers while visually framing the text.
Next, I chose the document’s typefaces and color palette. I chose to use a sans-serif typeface for the body text, as sans-serif fonts are the most readable on screens. I chose a contrasting serif typeface for the page headers to provide visual interest and clearly denote headers from body text.
For the document’s color palette, I used colors picked from the library’s logo to inform my choices. I chose to use the contrasting royal blue and orange; the royal blue brings to mind academics and knowledge, while the orange reflects playfulness and curiosity. I kept the colors minimal, as the main goal of the document is to be easily readable and accessible above all else—the white background and black text keep the body text easily readable for users.
After completing the document’s overarching layout and design, I began importing the content. While the library did not want any of the actual text changed, I was able to clean up the text by fixing irregular spacing, editing small grammatical errors, and fitting the content to my grid layout.
User Accessibility
The main goal of this document revision was to improve its overall accessibility, aligning the Longview Library’s documents with its commitment to inclusive and equitable reading experiences.
To achieve this, my revision focused on enhancing readability, incorporating interactive document features, and applying user-centered design principles.
Key readability improvements included transitioning to a sans-serif font and implementing a consistent grid layout. Standardizing spacing between paragraphs and bulleted lists further strengthened visual consistency and improved the overall reading experience.
These changes helped make the document easier to read, as demonstrated below:
I used Adobe InDesign’s features to design an interactive Table of Contents, allowing users to reach a section with a single click. I also imported the Table of Contents into Adobe Acrobat, allowing users to view the Table of Contents as a sidebar when viewing the document as a PDF. These changes allow the user to keep track of their location in the document and jump from section to section as needed.
My final revised document can be viewed in full and downloaded below: