#18555
Formatting your index attractively can improve readability and help your audience to locate information quickly. The following tips apply to printed indexes.
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2000). Articles>Indexing>Information Design
#26863
Four Modes of Seeking Information and How to Design for Them
Information-seeking behavior varies from situation to situation. Donna Mauer explores different ways in which users look for information and offers tactics for accommodating them.
Maurer, Donna. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Information Design
#21764
Fourth-Generation Hypermedia: Some Missing Links for the World-Wide Web
World Wide Web authors must cope in a hypermedia environment analogous to second-generation computing languages, building and managing most hypermedia links using simple anchors and single-step navigation. Following this analogy, sophisticated application environments on the World Wide Web will require third- and fourth-generation hypermedia features. Implementing third- and fourth-generation hypermedia involves designing both high- level hypermedia features and the high-level authoring environments system developers build for authors to specify them. We present a set of high-level hypermedia features including typed nodes and links, link attributes, structure-based query, transclusions, warm and hot links, private and public links, hypermedia access permissions, computed personalized links, external link databases, link update mechanisms, overviews, trails, guided tours, backtracking, and history-based navigation. We ground our discussion in the hypermedia research literature, and illustrate each feature both from existing implementations and a running scenario. We also give some direction for implementing these on the World Wide Web and in other information systems.
Open University, The (1997). Articles>Information Design>Hypertext>Web Design
#27077
Frequently Asked Questions about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture
DITA experts Don Day, Michael Priestley, and Gretchen Hargis address the topic architecture of DITA, tips and techniques, and general DITA questions.
Day, Don, Michael Priestley and Gretchen Hargis. IBM (2001). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA
#24206
From Data Drought to Factoid Flood: Reinforcing the Banks of the River of Communication 
Information, once rare and valuable, is now as plentiful as it is meaningless. The constant accessibility rendered by various 'networking' technologies has led to a veritable glut of information. Deluged with data and flooded with facts, we are drowning in a river of communication with no clear direction or purpose. Media-mesmerized and stimuli-saturated, we are caught up in the murky current, making it increasingly more difficult to keep our heads above water. Whether we sink or swim will depend on how effective we are at controlling and managing the flow, how efficient we are at fishing for essence and meaning, and how adept we are at preserving the ecology between man and this digital morass.
Dahm, Rea Etta M. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Information Design>Usability
#29020
From Structured Abstracts to Structured Articles: A Modest Proposal 
Work with structured abstracts--which contain sub-headings in a standard order--has suggested that such abstracts contain more information, are of a higher quality, and are easier to search and to read than are traditional abstracts. The aim of this article is to suggest that this work with structured abstracts can be extended to cover scientific articles as a whole. The article outlines a set of sub-headings--drawn from research on academic writing--that can be used to make the presentation of scientific papers easier to read and to write. Twenty published research papers are then analyzed in terms of these sub-headings. The analysis, with some reservations, supports the viability of this approach.
Hartley, James. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Writing
#19379
From Tech Pubs to Information Management
The need to make software easy to use and to integrate learning information into software products is changing roles of information developers at DDS. On the one hand information developers are now an integral part of design teams rather than members of a central technical publications group. On the other hand, decentralized development and online delivery require new types of central management and coordination. There’s more need than ever for formal standards, explicit information architecture, and defined best practices. Goals include effectiveness and timely delivery of product information, common look and feel, usability, and elimination of redundant work across departments throughout the life cycle.
Dykstra, Peter. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Information Design
#19057
Technical communicators have become increasingly interested in how to 'open up' the documentation process - to encourage workers to participate in developing documentation that closely fits their needs. This goal has led technical communicators to engage in usability testing, user-centered design approaches, and, more recently, open source documentation. Although these approaches have all had some success, there are other ways to encourage the participatory citizenship that is implied in these approaches. One way is through an open systems approach in which workers can consensually modify a given system and add their own contributions to the system.
Spinuzzi, Clay. ACM SIGDOC (2002). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>Open Source
#20826
In the short term of three to five years, I don't really expect significant changes in the way hypertext is done compared to the currently known systems. Of course new stuff will be invented all the time, but just getting the things we already have in the laboratory out into the world will be more than enough. I expect to see three major changes: the consolidation of the mass market for hypertext; commercial information services on the Internet; the integration of hypertext and other computer facilities.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1995). Articles>Information Design>Hypertext
#18467
Ganzheitliche Informationslogistik Unterstützt die Technische Dokumentation 
Nicht selten wird die technische Dokumentation nur nebenbei erstellt, obwohl gute Gründe für eine stärkere Beachtung dieses potenziellen Marketinginstruments sprechen: Rechtliche Bestimmungen erzwingen bestimmte Informationen (wie etwa Sicherheitshinweise) sowie die Qualität und Form, in der sie angebracht werden müssen. Fehlende oder zu spät gelieferte Dokumentation verursacht Zahlungsausfälle in Millionenhöhe. Dokumentation und Information wird zunehmend als zusätzlicher Service, also Mehrwert für den Kunden interessant. Darüber hinaus stellt der Bereich der Dokumentation die Keimzelle für technische Informationssysteme z.B. für das Wissensmanagement oder auch die Qualitätssicherung dar, da in diesen Abteilungen ohnehin bereits sehr große Mengen des technischen Know-hows im Unternehmen vorliegen. Im folgenden Beitrag lesen Sie, wie XML und .NET den Produktionsprozess positiv beeinflussen.
Freisler, Stefan. Doculine (2002). (German) Articles>Information Design>XML
#28522
A step-by-step must read article on SQL 2005 Reporting Services which creates a report and hosts it on an intranet server.
Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. ASPAlliance (2006). Articles>Information Design>Databases>SQL
#27948
Generating XML Schema Dynamically Using VB.NET 2005: Essentials
This is the first article in a series concentrating on generating XML Schema dynamically using Visual Basic 2005. The series is mainly targeted at those who are familiar with XML, XML Schema and the .NET framework.
Chaterjee, Jagadish. ASP Free (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>ASP
#20545
Geographic Information Systems
Explains GIS (geographic information systems), which capture and display geographically referenced information) and suggests ways that technical communicators can become more involved with this technology.
Pettit Jones, Colleen. Intercom (2003). Articles>Information Design>Technical Illustration>Geography
#31614
The next century will be an XML century, make no mistake about it. All our documents, even checks, credit card slips, personal letters, recipes, technical documents, everything, will benefit from XML technologies. Students are already learning XML in schools, and big businesses are using it to publish their databases on the web. The appearance of the electronic spreadsheet ten years ago changed the way we do business. XML will change the way we write documents.
DuBay, William H. Impact Information (1999). Articles>Information Design>Standards>XML
#27742
XPath 2.0 is the foundation of two essential recommendations currently in the final stages of development at W3C: XSLT 2.0 and XQuery. It is a major rewrite designed to significantly increase the power and efficiency of the language. In this article, Benoît Marchal shows how the new data model enables you to easily write more sophisticated requests.
Marchal, Benoit. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL
#30496
Getting Smart: Ways to Improve Your Intellectual Performance
Today's information developers are often confused by rapidly evolving technology and overwhelmed by the volumes of information they face each day. Although they might well feel that their mental faculties are taxed to the limit, research in cognitive psychology provides new strategies for coping in today's intellectually demanding environment. The purpose of this workshop is to give information developers insight into their intellectual strengths and to introduce strategies that can help them improve their intellectual performance.
Flanders, Alicia. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Information Design>Technology>Cognitive Psychology
#26795
In a world awash with information, finding what you really want can be difficult. Any database or web index can deliver a set of results. But it's particularly difficult to highlight the most relevant 'stuff.' Web search engines such as Google and Yahoo try their best to recommend some items over others, and now libraries are trying to do this for their holdings.
Tennant, Roy. Library Journal (2005). Articles>Information Design>Search
#29465
XML alone is not enough to effectively manage your organization's global content. Explore global XML and its benefits.
Hurst, Sophie. Intercom (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>International
#29491
The Google Sandbox and How To Get Out
The Google Sandbox is a filter that was put in place in about March of 2004. New websites with new domain names can take 6 to 12 months to get decent rankings on Google. Some are reporting stays of up to 18 months. The Sandbox seems to affect nearly all new websites placing them on probation. Similarly, websites that have made comprehensive redesigns have been caught up in this Sandbox. Does this Sandbox Really Exist, or is it just part of the Google algorithm? This has been a big controversy with many different opinions. Most now believe that this is an algorithm. In either case, the Sandbox functions to keep new sites from shooting to the top of Google in just a few weeks and overtaking quality sites that have been around for many years. This appears to be an initiation period for new websites.
Williams, Doug. stevenforsyth.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#29489
Google Search Engine Optimisation and their 80/20 Rule
Google's increasing use of anti-spam features has meant that optimising websites for Google has become much harder and it's now not just a case of opening your websites source files in notepad, adding some keywords into your various HTML tags, uploading your files and waiting for the results. In fact in my opinion and I'm sure others will agree with me, this type of optimisation, commonly referred to as onpage optimisation will only ever be 20% effective at achieving rankings for any keywords which are even mildly competitive. Those of us who aced maths in school will know this leaves us with 80% unaccounted for.
Callan, David. stevenforsyth.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#21594
Grokker, o la Navegación Visual
La aparición de navegadores cada vez más visuales y mejor estructurados como Vivísimo, Grokker o TouchGraph está empezando a agitar un mundo que parecía estático. Pparece que el referente en este campo está aún más allá del horizonte, pero cada día estamos más cerca.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2004). (Spanish) Articles>Information Design>Software
#22863
"Here, Just Stick this Document on the Web": Planning Usable Web Documents
Drawn by the lure of being 'on the Web' and wanting a quick Web presence, corporate clients increasingly ask information developers to take an existing paper document and 'just stick it on the Web.' This request may arise without considering whether the Web is appropriate, whether the document can or will be used in this medium, or whether the target audience even has Web access! If you’re the information developer asked to turn existing information into a Web document, take comfort: your careful analysis and preparation can make the result a usable Web site, not just an information dump.
Collins, William L., Elinor L. Knodel and Michael V. Mahoney. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Information Design>Web Design
#29677
Review: The Hidden History of Information Management
What strategies has society employed to collect, manage, and store information, even with the constant threat of oversupply, and still make this information accessible and meaningful to people over time?
Goodman, Bob. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>History
#27085
Hidden Information for All to See
While it takes special forensic tools to access most of the hidden information in computers, some of it is in plain view and can be seen without forensic tools. This article is about one of the 'plain view' instances: information Microsoft Word saves about you, your company, and the topic you are writing about, all of which can be seen by anyone who has access to your document.
Molisani, Jacki. Indus (2006). Articles>Information Design>Privacy>Microsoft Word
#30123
Hierarchies in Online Information: Balancing Depth and Breadth
Hart explains how understanding hierarchies--the order in which information is grouped--can help you choose an appropriate balance between the depth and breadth of your online information.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2007). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Online
