Consistency and accuracy in visual documentation are paramount in educational materials created using DITA. Maintaining uniformity and precision across visuals ensures that learners receive clear and reliable information. Here are conventions for ensuring the consistency and accuracy of visual documentation in education with DITA:

Visual Style Guide

Establishing a visual style guide is a fundamental step. This guide outlines the specifications for graphics, such as color schemes, fonts, icon usage, and image dimensions. Adhering to these guidelines guarantees a cohesive look and feel throughout the educational content, reducing confusion for learners.

Version Control

Version control is essential for managing visual assets. DITA allows you to track the versions of graphics and visuals, similar to text content. This ensures that outdated or incorrect visuals are not used inadvertently. Visual assets should be tagged with version information, making it easy to identify and replace obsolete visuals.

Quality Assurance Checks

Implement quality assurance checks for visual assets. These checks should involve verifying the correctness of visual information. For example, in a biology textbook, illustrations of plant cells must accurately depict their structure. Regularly review visuals, correct errors, and maintain an audit trail to track the changes made to visuals over time.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA allows for version control and quality assurance checks for a biology textbook:

<topic id="plant-cell-structure">
  <title>Plant Cell Structure</title>
  <content>...
  <visual>
    <image src="plant-cell-structure.png">
      <version>1.0</version>
      <last-reviewed>2023-04-10</last-reviewed>
      <reviewed-by>Botanist Jane</reviewed-by>
    </image>
  </visual>

In this example, a DITA topic about plant cell structure includes an image. The image is tagged with version information, the date of the last review, and the reviewer’s name, allowing for consistent quality checks and version control.