Page 9 - CUAJFeb2023

EDITORIAL

Notes on (re)design Michael

Leveridge

Editor-in-Chief
omposing a manuscript has evolved from cover, with stronger titles and blown-up images.
the labor of monks, though the revolution Within, though, remained the same page-packing Cite as: Leveridge M.
Cof casts on a typesetter’s composing columns, gradient headers that hid title text and a Notes on (re)design.
stick, to deliciously clacking typewriters, and body font with subtly uneven weighting that felt Can Urol Assoc J
into WYSIWYG software. Sometimes, the point past its best-before date. Not ugly, not unwieldy 2023;17(2):7-8. http://
dx.doi.org/10.5489/
is just to get words on a page for posterity or to the reader, just a bit busy, a bit heavy, and a cuaj.8270
communication, but we know that documents bit dusty. I’ll explain some details of the decisions
are typically formatted. A critical checklist will behind these changes, but it begs a short riff on
be spaced, clean, and scannable. An old-timey design (which to me means visual identity, usabil-
letterpress menu in a faux-faded historical ity, and aesthetics), how it makes the reader’s
typeface evokes a 19th century inn. A ransom experience better, and may mean better know-
note’s cut-and-paste letters allude to the frazzled ledge translation from these pages.
criminal mind, and the ubiquitous chalk craft beer It’s easy to think of design and aesthetic appeal
menu wants to entice you into chewing through a as synonymous, but elegance or attractiveness are
vile local guava milk stout. Respectfully, landlord, just a subset of overall design. We want things
I’ll have the pilsner. to be visually appealing, but we’re not making
When submitting to this or about any other movie posters, so usability must remain at the
journal, the convention is 12-point-Times-New- fore. Aesthetics are also very personal. The same
Roman-double-spaced-one-inch-margins. Easy, consciously designed page or artifact’s beauty is
standardized, accessible. So why don’t we just in the eye of the beholder. A teapot must have
stay with that for publication? After all, we sanc- a handle and a spout, but a sleek matte Japanese
timoniously muse, it is the integrity of “the sci- kettle has a different audience than an ornate
ence” that wins the day, so surely fussing about Victorian ceramic one, and a calligraphic scroll
columns and fonts and headers is garnish in the is very different from your toaster’s instruction
greater scheme (and isn’t that what they mean manual, though both serve reading. Your walls
by “article processing” when they’re asking for may feature prints of geometric muted colour
$3000 for open access)? These submission default blocks, pastoral photography, or cursive “Live,
settings are geared toward easy review, and hark- Laugh, Love” prints. I’m pretty sure your kitchen
en back to typewriter settings, when the real- says “Gather” on the wall over the table, doesn’t
world page would be double-spaced to allow for it? Bless. To this end, we’ve cleaned up the pages
copyediting annotations and text revisions. They of CUAJ with less ornate headers, a few blocks
are not geared towards readability or usability. of color for visual interest, and a new (to us)
The 100-character line length makes tracking sub- typeface. We chose Gill Sans, a 1920s British
sequent lines just a bit more challenging (about 60 design still prominent today. It feels modern and
characters is best — when was the last time you clean despite its age and familiarity, with a uniform
read a novel on 8.5x11” paper?) and the surfeit width and slightly shorter “x-height” (the size of
of pages makes scanning and searching very dif- the body of lower case) that are smart and legible.
ficult, while blowing up the cost of printing. It also We experimented with left-justified text in the
just doesn’t look great; it lacks in aesthetics and columns, in the service of maximizing white space,
in the imprimatur of professionalism we expect but felt the blocks of full-justified text were much
from a document that has run the gauntlet of more pleasant to look at.
peer review and publication. While attractiveness opens up its world of
Welcome to the revised layout for CUAJ! The tweaks and choices, pages achieve aesthetic satis-
page you are looking at looks very different from faction and usefulness via some universal princi-
last month’s issue, and every issue of the past 15 ples. Usability of text means the ability to navigate
years. In December 2020, we introduced a new easily, read without strain, and differentiate ele-

CUAJ • FEBRUARY 2023 • VOLUME 17, ISSUE 2 © 2023 CANADIAN UROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 7