Purpose
The
document is a “Dummies
Guide to Cooking” for men. The cookbook provides simple,
nutritious and healthy recipes for people who are novice cooks
or are intimidated by cooking. The document provides a
detailed listing of ingredients, assuming that if you do not
cook you do not, or have not, gone grocery shopping often.
Audience
The
audience for the document is huge. The target audience is men,
who do not know how to cook or are too busy to find the time to cook. The document is not
intended for people living on their own as at a minimum the
recipes provide four servings. The document assumes the user
is old enough to cook safely (avoid touching a hot surface or
cutting one’s self with a knife) and has the need to cook.
Context
The
primary place the document is used is in the kitchen while
preparing one of the recipes. The document fails in this
regard because the binding of the book does not allow it to
lie flat on counter or table. The document would also be used
while the potential cook is compiling a shopping list.
Text
All
the text in the document is a Sans-Serif typeface which
promotes the book as an authority. This tone is needed to
reassure a novice cook to let him know he is following the
directions correctly.
The
only text in a Serif
typeface is the chapter headings. This
provides a nice contrast to the rest of the Sans-Serif text
throughout the cookbook.
The
text used for the subheadings is given a red colour which
allows it to standout from the rest of the text. However, a
bold treatment of the text and out-denting the subheadings
along with the colour treatment would have been much more
effective.
Graphics/Images
The
document is very sweet, providing at least four high
resolution photographs per page. The photographs provide
reassurance to the user, letting him know that it is possible
to make all of the recipes. The photos say. “Look, if you
follow the recipe this is what you will get.”
As
well, the high contrast, full colour photos give the document
a personal touch instead of a cold, mechanical assembly line
feeling which would intimidate the user.
Spacing
Most
of the pages in the document are formulaic – photos and text
appear in the same place on each page - providing a single
recipe on both the recto and verso side of the page. This
provides a reasonable amount of space so the user does not
feel overwhelmed with information. However, there are a number
of pages in the document that have two recipes on a single
page creating too much noise.
This
cluttering of information serves only to intimidate and
confuse the user. The reasoning for such a decision is
unknown, yet one can safely assume space was limited to fit
production costs. The selection criteria for the recipes that
are doubled up appear to have no coherent reason. A number of
the recipes that are doubled-up contain five pictures, whereas
some if the recipes on a single page only contain four photos.
This creates excessive, confusing noise.
Navigation
& Orientation
The
document is poorly designed for the user to navigate through. The
table
of contents (TOC) provides the main ingredients of each dish
in a variety of colours, (five of which are all from the
‘red family’) in a font that does not jump off the page
– the text seems lost amongst the photos (which are at least
in a grid spacing pattern). The colours of the text in the TOC
correspond to the colour of the chapter headings but these are
not visible unless the book is open and the reader is scanning
the pages.
As
well, the document lacks an index of any sort – always a
valued navigation tool in a cookbook.
However
the document does a decent job of orientation by providing
clearly labelled page numbers and chapter headings (main
ingredient) in a white font on a background of the chapter’s
designated colour from the TOC.
|