Curious PDFs

While doing some math work, I was rummaging through some Google links and came across a particular PDF document. I was looking up some information about regression analysis and this particular document caught my eye. Why? Because it looked different than all the other stereotypical documents about math that you could find. (Things like TIMES NEW ROMAN and total disregard of negative space, tracking, leading, etc.)

The document can be found here: http://www.math.tamu.edu/~maggie.mcgrath/Math142/math142regressionexamples.pdf

Now I'm not pointing out any superiorities it has over standard math documents, because it has obvious design flaws. But it at least tries! The font is easily not recognized as the standard textbook Times New Roman (which IS a nice font, but through overuse it kind of loses a lot of it's classy flare.) and they attempt some forms of hierarchy with their headings. The font here looks similar to a Century type of font, but unclear of what it really is.

Compare that document to this one, also about regression but different content somewhat: http://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/~dmeko/notes_11.pdf

I've opened it up in Acrobat and confirmed it's use of Times New Roman. Also, the paragraphs feel squished together, another similarity to a stereotypical document, which when combined with the functions and equations written has a very high probability of leading a reader to the conclusion of: Blah blah blah.

I bring this up because I currently possess a mathematics textbook that, compared to the previous textbook, is so difficult to read because of poor design choices. And it was even published later than the previous textbook! (2009) That just makes things even worse. Some would argue that the important stuff is the content and the learning. But take it from a Graphic Designer that people will learn a lot better when they pay more attention to your "content" because it looks better.