Retrieving Product Documentation Online    

As our high-technology clients become increasingly knowledgeable of the power of electronic media, we are confronted with questions on how the Internet and intranets can be used to deliver technical documents online. For example, one of our clients, a large international firm whose high-technology products are currently supported by printed literature, wants to be able to deliver their product documentation electronically, on customer demand. Their customers, typically professionals working in a fast-paced technical environment, need quick and easy access to appropriate technical information to configure our client's products.

In this article, we discuss how we came to answer our client's question: 'How can we make it easier for our customers to retrieve technical documents from our electronic library?' As we discuss below, we decided that searching online libraries could be facilitated by making the organization of the library conceptually apparent.

Racine, Sam J. and Irving B. Crandall. Technical Communication Online (2001). Design>Information Design>Documentation