Karen Schriver (2007) stated that document designers must understand the situational context for reading. This refers to what form the document is presented in for the readers. Designing for online media, such as blogs, are different from designing for print media. According to Schriver, this is because readers of print media are used to reading in an orderly manner; not jumping for one page to another page in random order. For example, a reader of a new book would not want to spoil the surprise of a good ending by jumping straight to the last few pages. Whereas for online media, readers are expected to click on hyper links that would lead them to whole new different page.
This can also be related to Kress & van Leeuwen's (2006) theory on linear and non-linear text. Print media like books are linear texts while blogs are non-linear texts.
To illustrate:
Print media
This is the content page of a conference report. All the information in the report are arranged and presented in an orderly manner. Readers of the report cannot jump from Background to Conclusion lest they cannot make head or tail of the report.
Online media (blog)
In online media, the information are arranged in a non-linear form where readers can willingly click on hyper links surrounding the main document.
Therefore, we can observe that the designing of print media differs from that of online media in a way where information are arranged; linear or non-linear.
References:
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images, Routledge, United States of America.
Schriver, KA 2007, Dynamics in document design, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, United States of America.
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