Notes to editors: follow accessibility guidelines! If you’re not aware of what that means, check the NYU accessibility guidelines and the WordPress accessibility guidelines. On this site, the most common things you need to consider are:

• Add alt tags and captions to images. Make the descriptions thorough, for someone with low vision. Use the media control panel to do this, so the alt tag will automatically get inserted when the image is re-used.
• Give all your figures Figure numbers and captions, and refer to them by the figure number in your text. See example below.
• Don’t use tables for layout. Use them only when an actual table is needed
• Be consistent about image layouts and descriptions
• Use page headers, and don’t skip any levels (e.g. H1, H2, etc). The TOC plugin will auto-generate a table of contents for each page.
• Start with a 1-2 sentence description that you can put in the excerpt field. This will be the TL;DR that lets readers know quickly what your report is about.

Description

What is it? What does it do? If a sensor, what physical properties does it measure, and to what ranges and resolutions? Include a photo or image, like that shown in Figure 1.

This component is likely one of a class of devices (e.g. accelerometer, potentiometer, joystick). What other manufacturers have a comparable product?

If you are choosing just one, why did you choose this one over the others (briefly; see below for details)? If you’re describing the whole class of components, describe the characteristics common to them all.

Figure 1. GTE knob. This knob goes to eleven. The knob has a knurled top and the markings on the skirt are numbered from 1 to 11.

Definitions

Are there terms the designer should know in order to understand this class of component? Explain or illustrate them here.

Typical Applications

What is this typically used for? What uses do you plan for it yourself? How did that work out?

Manufacturer Info

If you’re describing a specific component, list the manufacturer (not the vendor), the model number, and link to the data sheet. If you are describing a class, give examples here with links to the data sheets.