Using the STOP methodology

["D. Farkas" <farkas -at- u -dot- washington -dot- edu>]

I know STOP and I think it can be an effective means of designing print
documents.

A key aspect of STOP is the technique often referred to as "layering." For
each topic in a STOP document, there is a title, a summary, and the complete
presentation (detailed text and usually a graphic). Readers, therefore, can
choose the amount of information they want on each topic.

One drawback, of course, is redundancy. Another drawback is that each topic
is supposed to occupy a fixed amount of space. In some cases, this is a
single page; in other cases, a two-page spread. This constraint requires the
designer to carefully divide the subject matter so that each topic will fit
the available space. Often, this means a relatively flat hierarchy--that is,
it is necessary to divide a subject area into a relatively large number of
relatively short chunks.

I have seen first-rate proposals, catalogs, and other documents designed
with STOP. Years ago, a masterful tech writer named James Carte (in West
Virginia) ran a successful contract writing and production business that
specialized in STOP documents. When Carte couldn't fit a topic within a
two-page spread, he created a fold-out page for that topic (in effect, a
three-page spread). Needless to say, this was a very labor-intensive
technique.

STOP, by the way, has its origins in the storyboarding technique used in the
motion picture industry.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
David K. Farkas
Professor
Dept. of Technical Communication
College of Engineering
Box 352195
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-2195

farkas -at- u -dot- washington -dot- edu
http://www.uwtc.washington.edu


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