EightShapes, LLC is a user experience design firm specialized in web sites and web applications.

Markers

If you are annotating a screen design or some other picture, and you need to connect the picture with one or more annotations, then utilize symbols in the markers library.

Why Markers?

Markers are useful for annotating your designs because you can:

  • Add them quickly to a deliverable page
  • Enumerate each in connection with annotations to the side
  • Distinguish them from the artwork / picture underneath
  • Arrange them so as to obscure little to any of the picture underneath
  • Create classifications using marker color, shape, and other styles

Why NOT Markers?

Markers are not always the optimal way to connect your pictures and words, since:

  • Markers require the reader to jump back and forth between picture and words, without a concrete path connecting the two (as opposed to callouts and overlays, both which visually connect the annotation directly to the picture’s item or area of interest)
  • If the picture underneath changes, then one or more markers will need to be realigned
  • Poorly arranged markers can be confusing, appear haphazard, and not clearly refer to a specific element

How

  • Open the markers.indl library as a panel in your workspace. Open the file /deliverables/_elements/markers.indl using File > Open or double clicking the file in Windows Explorer or Mac OSX Finder. Once open, drag an item from the panel onto your deliverable page.
  • Manipulate markers using the direct selection and type tools. In particular, note that a marker object is actually a grouped pair of objects: label (above) and shape (below).
  • Rotate a notched marker by direct selecting the shape only, changing to Rotate tool, and rotating to point in a different direction (refer to the example below).

Examples

Rotating a Notched Marker: