Attending an STC Conference on a Shoestring Budget

Companies are reducing their training budgets. During these austere times, the technical writer must get more creative than ever to participate in the annual conference. An informal survey of attendees at the 50th Annual Conference in Dallas showed that many people paid their own way to the conference. There are numerous ways to reduce the cost to attend the conference.

Bine, Katharyn. Usability Interface (2003). Articles>TC>Professionalism>STC

Helping Web Customers Sniff Out a Deal

In Jared Spool's presentation, 'Scent of a Web Site' to the Washington DC Chapter of UPA (September 18, 2002), Spool used scent as an analogy to attract customers to the goods or services they desire online. A predator locates prey by following a scent trail. If the predator loses the scent trail, it returns to the location where the trail was strong, and tries again. Spool reports seeing a similar behavior with people looking for content on very large Web sites. Spool introduced two new vocabulary words that I plan to use. Gallery pages are used on very large Web sites to aggregate content pages. Store pages are used to aggregate gallery pages. The home page connects to stores; effective home pages also connect to galleries and content as well. These concepts aren't necessary for Web sites of one to twenty or so pages. They are essential for very large Web sites, such as Amazon or Microsoft Network, with pages numbering in the millions.

Bine, Katharyn. Usability Interface (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability

Intranet Accessibility and Section 508

A compelling reason to make your Intranet accessible to people with disabilities is because itï¿s the law. Section 508 of the United Statesï¿ Rehabilitation Act of 1972 requires that Federal agenciesï¿ electronic and information technology (EIT) be accessible to people with disabilities (vision, hearing, mobility) if the EIT is procured on or after June 21, 2001. If you develop hardware, software, Internet, or Intranet solutions for the U.S. Government, either as an employee of the U.S. Government or as a service or product provider, the procurement date is a critical factor in determining functional requirements of your Intranet.

Bine, Katharyn. Usability Interface (2002). Design>Accessibility>Web Design>Section 508

Traveling Route 508: A One-Way Street to Universal Accessibility  

'Accessible' is a higher standard than 'Section 508-compliant.' Identifying the design principles for accessible web page design, and which of those principles are required under Section 508, is a useful approach to the issue for any organization that must comply with the Section 508 standards. The legislation has no standards for determining whether your web site complies with Section 508. Possible processes include: evaluating the site using a text-to-speech application; evaluating the site using validation software; and usability testing.

Bine, Katharyn and Gloria A. Reece. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508