Structure Before Decoration

Making a heading 24-point bold does not necessarily make it a real heading.

Document structure is information about the role each part of the document plays. A title is a title. A section heading starts a section. A list groups related items. A table expresses relationships across rows and columns. When you use structure correctly, the document becomes easier to scan, revise, navigate, and interpret with assistive technology.

Visual style and semantic structure are different

Consider these two lines:

IMPORTANT SAFETY RULES

One document makes the line large and bold using manual formatting. Another applies a real Heading style. They may look similar to a sighted reader, but the second document also carries structural meaning that tools can use.

That is why “looks right” is not enough evidence.

Build a document outline

A short technology brief might have this hierarchy:

Title
├── What the technology does
├── How it works
│   ├── Input
│   ├── Process
│   └── Output
├── Evidence / example
└── Limitation

The hierarchy should match the ideas. Do not choose Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 because you like their default font sizes.

Worked repair

Fictional document:

ROBOT SENSORS
Sensors let robots notice the world.
TYPES
camera
lidar
ultrasonic
WHY IT MATTERS
Robots need information before making decisions.

A structural repair could convert TYPES and WHY IT MATTERS into section headings and the sensor names into a real list. The words may barely change; the information architecture improves.

Repair a supplied document

Use a teacher-supplied text sample or create a harmless copy of the fictional structure above. Apply:

• one document title;
• logical heading levels;
• one real bulleted or numbered list where the content is actually a list;
• consistent paragraph spacing;
• meaningful filename and Drive location.

Then use the document outline/navigation feature if available. Does the structure appear in the same hierarchy you intended?

Failure mode: heading levels chosen by appearance

Skipping directly from a top-level heading to a much deeper level because “Heading 3 looks nicer” weakens the document's structure. Style can be adjusted; hierarchy should describe the content.

Structured Document Repair

Submit before/after evidence plus a short outline of the repaired structure. In two sentences explain:

• one structural change that helps a reader or assistive technology;
• one visual change that is merely presentation and should not be confused with structure.

Week 4 will build accessibility and collaboration on top of this foundation.