Flowcharts, Swimlanes, and Timelines

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 2018

Stefania Passera Aalto University

Abstract

Government-published documents often fail to communicate clearly—not only with citizens but also with professional readers such as civil servants. Visual or multimodal approaches remain rare. This is a particularly unhelpful practice in regard to legal–bureaucratic instructions (e.g., contracts, rules, policies), which exist to guide compliant behavior. This study explores the development and experimental evaluation of a diagrammatic guide of terms and conditions for public procurement that is addressed to civil servants. Results show that the diagrammatic format, compared to prose, significantly enhances comprehension accuracy and answering speed and is perceived as more appealing and functional by users.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2018-04-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651917746459
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (4)

Miles et al. (2010)

Beyond Plain Language: A Learner-Centered Approach to Pattern Jury Instructions

Technical Communication Quarterly
Jansen et al. (1996)

The Sequential Order of Procedural Instructions: Some Formal Methods for Design…

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Kostelnick (1996)

Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents

Technical Communication Quarterly
Kostelnick (1990)

Typographical Design, Modernist Aesthetics, and Professional Communication

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Also cites 57 works outside this index ↓

10.4018/978-1-4666-0152-9

↗
10.1038/nrn1201

↗
10.1111/j.1467-9280.1993.tb00584.x

↗
10.1006/jvlc.2001.0207

↗
10.1002/acp.1473

↗
10.1109/47.735365

↗
10.1207/s1532690xci0804_2

↗
10.1109/47.988358

↗
10.1177/009207039101900401

↗
10.1006/obhd.1995.1058

↗
10.1109/TPC.2004.824289

↗
10.1016/0749-596X(92)90008-L

↗
10.1007/978-1-4471-4303-1_4

↗
10.1075/idj.4.1.02jan

↗
10.1075/ddcs.1.02jan

↗
10.1075/ddcs.1.07jan

↗
10.1075/ddcs.1.06jan

↗
10.1075/ddcs.1

↗
Jarrett C., Redish J., Summers K., Straub K. (2010). Design to read: Guidelines for people who do not read ea…

↗
10.1007/s10648-007-9054-3

↗
10.1145/1837110.1837127

↗
10.1177/2329488414525444

↗
10.1017/CBO9781139235662.012

↗
10.3758/BF03195337

↗
10.1109/TPC.2004.824288

↗
10.1080/00220973.1992.9943875

↗
10.1111/j.1551-6708.1987.tb00863.x

↗
10.1145/198366.198376

↗
10.1109/47.768163

↗
10.4018/jdm.2008070102

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.88.1.64

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.82.4.715

↗
10.1111/j.1467-8535.1991.tb00293.x

↗
Mitchell J. A. (2013). Putting some product into work-product: Corporate lawyers learning from designers. Sta…

↗
10.1075/ddcs.1.12neu

↗
10.1037/h0027272

↗
10.1109/IV.2012.69

↗
Passera S. (2015). Beyond the wall of text: How information design can make contracts user-friendly. In Marcu…

↗
10.1145/2074712.2074724

↗
10.1109/TPC.2017.2656678

↗
10.1177/2055563616669739

↗
10.1108/00251740410538505

↗
10.1109/IV.2012.70

↗
10.1109/47.44542

↗
10.1075/ddcs.1.03ren

↗
10.1177/105065198800200105

↗
10.1006/ijhc.1996.0048

↗
10.1016/S0959-4752(02)00017-8

↗
10.1207/s15516709cog1901_3

↗
10.1016/0959-4752(94)90003-5

↗
10.1109/TPC.2016.2517451

↗
10.1177/0022022106297301

↗
10.1509/jmkr.40.3.310.19238

↗
10.1007/978-1-4684-1068-6_17

↗
10.1177/2055563616668893

↗
10.1037/h0037045

↗
10.2307/3069324

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 20 View in citation network →