Document Design and Development Analysis: Adept Owl Company Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of document design and development within the Adept Owl Company, a firm specializing in entertainment games. The report begins by outlining the requirements for information entry, including the need for a style guide, file naming and storage standards, and organized information output with appropriate visual styles. It then delves into the company's current and future IT capabilities, highlighting skill gaps in areas such as manual document creation and expense reporting. The report suggests measures to close these gaps through staff training and specialization, along with recommendations for future IT needs, such as letter templates and standardized expense reporting processes. The analysis emphasizes the importance of adapting the company's style guide to accommodate technological changes and ensure user-friendliness. The report concludes by stressing the need for consistent visual styles and layouts to maintain a professional and engaging user experience.

Running Head: Document Design and Development
1
Document Design and Development
Name of Student
Name of Institution
Name of Instructor
Date of Submission

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Introduction
One of the core elements of success in any business organization is the extent t which the
management achieves a stable link between the business and its environment. The business
environment comprises various aspects which may include the business stakeholders, the
influential governing policies and most importantly the organization’s base of clients.
Maintaining a proper links calls for effective channels of interaction especially between a
company and its clients hence the vital role of effective document design in business
administration (Koschmann, 2012). The process of designing a document calls for an inevitable
adherence to specific standards which have a special way in influencing the quality of the final
products. In any given software project involving documentation in an organization, the
documentation standards are key since they enable the business to represent the products and the
procedures to the customers in a tangible manner. Standardization enhances consistency in
structure and appearance hence making the document easier to read and interact with. In this
paper, we discuss the various elements involving document design and development with
reference to a scenario in the Adept Owl Company. The company specializes in the production
of entertaining boards, as well as card and puzzle games. Since the products are varied, the
organization’s scope covers a client base of all ages (Carolyne, 2010).
Question 1
Requirement for Information Entry
Style Guide
Different organizations are guided by different requirements based on the company
policies and procedures. In the case of Adept Owl, one major requirement for information entry

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would be a style guide. Adept Owl ought to develop a style guide based on its objectives
especially in terms of customer satisfaction. When information is entered under the strict control
of the guide, the product quality is likely to be enhanced as most if not all the client needs will
have been factored in.
Requirements for file naming and storage
A good format
The organization’s main aim is to come up with products which the customers can easily
interact and hence relate with. During file naming, it would be important to use a format which
does not only enhance the readability of the document but actually remains user friendly to all
sorts of clients irrespective of their ages, class, educational levels or gender just to mention but
few factors (Frumpkin, 2007). For instance, the appropriate format for date designation is
YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD. With such an approach, Adept Owl would have ensured that all
its documents are stored in a chronological order despite the span of time it takes to run.
Considerable Length
The other important requirement that Adept Owl may need to factor in is the length of the
file names. It is required that the file names should not be too long nor too short. Depending on
the software on which the project is intended to run, the company may choose to use acronyms
or sequential numbering. A considerable length is therefore vital since long file names may not
operate effectively with all software.

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Requirements for Output/Quality
Information Organization
Since one of the major objectives of the company is to engage customers and improve
products production, there is the inevitable need to ensure that information is entered in the
documents in an organized manner. Good data organization enhances accessibility of crucial
information both by the management and the customers. Consequently, less time is wasted while
interacting with the products.
Appropriate Visual style and features
In a bid to ensure consistency in the quality of product delivery, the company ought to
ensure the usability and readability of the documents. The nature of the products (games) offered
by the company indicate that a client ought to easily understand the elements of the document as
soon as they interact with it. It would therefore be important to consider the right visual styles
which may include appropriate fonts, color, size, orientation, layout and space. The organization
may as well incorporate the use of additional features like animations as well as headers and
footers to give the customers the much needed guidance while using the products (William,
2014).
Compliance Requirements
Age requirements
The Australian legislative policies are keen on protecting the minors from exposure to
harmful products especially when the services are internet or technology based. In compliance
with the age requirements, the Adept Owl Company, despite the need to serve all sorts of

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customers, may be required to consider age limits for the users. As such, the entertainment
games, cards and puzzled can only be played by users who have attained a specific age. The
company may therefore install software which requires the users to key in their ages before being
allowed to proceed with the use products (Wolfe, 2009).
Content
In addition to compliance with the age requirements, the legal procedures also prohibit
the deliberate exposure of the users to harmful content. In relation to this requirement, Adept
Owl has consistently performed a review of its products in a bid to ensure that the contents of the
documents and hence the products are in compliance with the laid down legislative procedures.
This ensures that the customers’ use of the products leaves them entertained and satisfied without
necessarily washing off their moral standards and need for sobriety.
QUESTION 2
Adept Owl’s present and future IT capability
Skill Gaps
The company’s desire is to improve on its product production, improve performance
within the organization and hence encourage effective customer engagement. In order to achieve
such, it would be crucial to point out some of the skill gaps in relation to information technology
which in one way or the other could be hindering performance within the organization.
To begin with, most of the processes especially in the preliminary sections of document
design are still being done manually and by individuals. As deduced from the company’s
scenario, letters are being created by individuals which in turn lead problems especially when it

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comes to the issue of mass mail outs a process which lowers efficiency levels. Manual operations
and individual preparations of documents as opposed to the use of machines and software slow
down the production process within the organization. This is because processes aided by human
capabilities tend to be slower and less efficient as compared to computerized standard
procedures.
The other area in which there exists a notable skill gap when it comes to the use of IT in
documentation is the aspect of expense reporting. The case study notes that the company
currently lacks standard procedures, templates and processes in designing expense templates.
There is a range of methods which are currently being used by the staff members but are
considerably less effective. The company reports reveal that the staff members are complaining
about the methodologies laid down by the company to aid in expense reporting. According to
the workers, the processes are time consuming since a lot of time is required when inputting the
expenses. Consequently, the final data is laced with a various inconsistencies which may include
incomplete or incorrect coding of expenses.
From the administrative team capability template, it can be derived that most members of
staff are only conversant with creating and using templates in word or excel format. Pat and Kim
seem to have adequate skills in this area while Sam is completely non-conversant with this skill
area. At the same time, the administration team is only averagely knowledgeable when it comes
to creating macros using excel and word. There is only one member in the administration who
can create and use mail merge features in word but can only do this with supervision.
Additionally, there is a clear lack of adequate experience in various other areas within the
administrative duties which need to be addressed. For instance, creating and using form fields in
word, creating and using drop down lists in excel and creating and using formulas in excel. As

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indicated in each of Adept Owl’s administrative tasks, there is no single area in which the staff
can operate effectively without supervision which basically slows down documentation
processes within the organization.
Measures on Closing the Skill gaps
The main step that Adept Owl could take to close the performance gaps in the
organization’s bid to improve performance would be to conduct extensive staff training and
exposure. Details of analysis of the administrative team capabilities indicate a clear lack of
training of the staff members in various areas. The trainings could be conducted on specific areas
for instance the use of word and excel which is one of the basic elements in document design and
development. At the same time, the organization can work on specialization where an
individual’s skills are sharpened and enhanced on specific areas in which they are well
acquainted. For instance, Sam is good in creating and using mail merge features and also has
enough experience in creating drop down lists and using formulas in excel. The organization can
therefore choose to enhance him on this specific area. Pat who is good in creating and using
templates in excel and word formats could be trained to specialize in these specific areas.
Specialization plays a crucial role in disseminating duties among the members of the
administration. This does not only shorten the time taken to complete projects but also goes a
long way in enhancing the quality of products due to improved efficiency.
Adept Owl’s Future IT needs
With respect to the skill gaps identified in the section above, there are a number of
improvements which Adept Owl could factor in especially in line with IT in a bid to improve on
performance. First of all, the organization might need to review its current style guide and

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procedures and hence come up with software which produces letter templates. This is because
letters are currently produced from scratch and by individuals which takes quite a while with
inconsistencies in quality. A letter template would therefore increase the speed of production in
addition to ensuring an organized form of information entry. In a nut shell, a letter template
would go a long way in minimizing production delays.
Secondly, as an IT need, organization needs to incorporate the use of standard templates
accompanied by processes which would make the process of expense reporting easy and
manageable. As per the current situation, there lacks specific procedures meant to govern the
process of expense reporting especially when inputting the expenses. With no standard template,
workers seem to have difficulties in finding the right arrangement of elements within the
document. Since each of these tasks border around the use of word and excel in the creation of
templates, Adept Owl Company may need to develop and install more efficient and update
software which would make the use of word and excel easy. Such a procedure may involve
incorporating more advanced software on which both the word and excel programs can run with
minimal hindrances. For instance, a faster program would increase the rate of production of the
procedural templates. This would in turn reduce the time take to create the letters meant for use
as internal and external memos. This evaluation has been solely guided by a thorough analysis of
the Adept Owl scenario in addition to review of relevant documents and resources on document
development and design.

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Changes on Adept Owl’s Style guide
In order to take care of the anticipated technological changes, there is an inevitable need
for Adept Owl to make alterations on the current style guide. Since the anticipated changes
would involve the production of a template, there is need to ensure the documents have a general
standard view which is not only interactive but also user friendly. The changes made would
involve improving the visual styles and features to fit the standards of a template. Secondly, the
organization may as well change the layout of its current document design to a standard view
which would be universal for use despite the kind of audience for which the letter is meant.
A letter template or any other standard template requires specific page elements. As a
result, the organization will be required to review its font choice, color selection as well as
shading. Each of these adjustments is meant to fit the standard requirements of a template.
Consequently, the organization may have to record additional procedures in its style guide while
eliminating the more manual approaches as this would go a long way in enhancing the quality of
products.
QUESTION 3
Based on the nature of the organization’s guide, a number of documents can be identified
as those used by the company. To begin with, the company currently uses letters meant for both
internal and external communication with workers and clients alike. The letters are manually
designed hence the need for templates to enhance efficiency. Secondly, the organization also
uses expense reports as a document to record its financial and expense activities. This is another
document that requires a standard template. Thirdly, Adept Owl uses a number of electronic

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documents which include emails, markups and written feedbacks especially with regard to the
nature of products offered by the organization to its clients. In addition to the documents
identified above, the organization may need to come up with several other templates for instance
letter templates as well as standard templates to aid in the completion of expense reports.
Finally, from the administration team capabilities, it can also be deduced that the organization
uses other documents in macro forms, drop down lists as well as form fields mostly created using
word and excel programs.
QUESTION 4
Procedure for a mass letter Mail –out
The process is basically found in Microsoft word and has been simplified over time.
Step (i)
Open or create a Main document in Microsoft word. A good example of a main document can
be a form letter which is meant for delivery to many recipients like 100 people.
Step (ii)
Create a source of data; this ought to have individual recipient information.
A data source can be described as the file which contains the information which ought to be
merged with the main document. This may include the names and addresses of the individuals.
Examples of data source files include; a word table, an access table, a text delimited file or an
excel spreadsheet.

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Step (iii)
Customize merge fields in the main document.
The placeholders put into the main documents are called the merge fields. The program uses this
to identify where to put the correlation elements as obtained from the source of data. For instance
a field for instance <<SecondName>> would key in the individual’s second name from a data
source record.
Step (iv)
Put together the data from the source into the document in order to create a new merged
document
Putting the data source together with the main document creates a merged document.
Summary of Considerations
While performing the mass letter mail out procedure, the following considerations ought to be
factored in;
 Standard fonts, color and shading of the main document to be adhered to according to the
organization’s style guide
 Proper page elements including the right size, page levels as well as headers and footers.
 The number of words per document shouldn’t exceed the standard requirements. This
would sort out any related cost implications.

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Assesment Task 2
Draft Letter Template
[Pick the date]
[Company Name]
[Company Address]
[Recipient Name]
[Recipient Address]
[Salutation]
Insert the main contents. Include details based on the style guide. Consider the font, color, document
size and shading standards
[Closing]
[Sender Title]
[Company Name]