Restructuring Your User Information  

Details a process for improving the usability, consistency, and organization of user information within businesses that maintain medium to large documentation libraries.

Richards, Charles. Intercom (2003). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Usability

Return on Investment for Usability

Ease of use doesn't come from wishful thinking. It comes from conducting systematic usability engineering activities throughout the project lifecycle. This is real work and costs real money, though not as much as some people fear. You can conduct simple forms of user testing in a few days and gain extensive insights into both user behavior and recommended design improvements. Still, before most people will commit to a lifecycle approach to usability, they want to know what it will cost and what they will gain. We set out to find the answers.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Usability>Management

The Return on Investment of Documentation and Support

The benefits of user documentation (reduced support calls, increase in the perceived value of the product, happier customers, better customer retention, increase product usage etc) can be identified, but it can be hard to measure them and accurately quantify the Return on Investment.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2008). Articles>Documentation>Management

Reusability 2.0: The Key to Publishing Learning  

What would you do if you had to develop and deliver personalized training to 900,000 employees, located in 34,000 different locations globally with a complex set of variables that changes training on a location-by-location basis? The key is reusability 2.0. While technology-delivered training has become mainstream in many organizations, most are still not fully leveraging the power of reusable learning content to meet their instructional needs.

Chapman, Bryan. Xyleme (2007). Articles>Content Management>Instructional Design>White Papers

Rich Media Management and Business Agility

Understanding how rich media assets are used by the enterprise, of course, remains the central prerequisite for the enterprise’s ability to capitalize on the deployment of a rich media content management platform. The keys to a successful platform for rich media management include an approach to development based on service-oriented architectures (SOA) and a rich underlying content repository that exposes both the content and its metadata.

Trippe, Bill. Gilbane Report (2004). Articles>Content Management>Multimedia

The Right and Wrong of Quark and Adobe Strategies

What distinguishes the underlying strategies of Adobe InDesign from QuarkXPress is the absence or presence of a content management system (CMS). And each company asserts that it’s following the less-traveled road. The problem is they’re both taking roads most traveled because of their respective stances towards integrated content management systems, and I’ll show you how after looking at their respective strategies.

Kuhnen, Eric. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Document Design>Software>Content Management

The Rise of Web Intelligence  

We live in a market of instant information, where perception and image are increasingly linked to stock prices and the best strategic plans can be undermined in the course of a morning.

Denton, Nick. KMworld (2001). Articles>Management>Knowledge Management

ROI Is Not a Silver Bullet: Five Actionable Steps for Valuing User Experience Design

How can design managers use valuation methodology to better increase their visibility and position themselves as a strategic corporate resource? Here are five steps that will help.

Hirsch, Scott. Adaptive Path (2004). Articles>Management>User Experience

Role of Information Professionals in Knowledge Management Programs: Empirical Evidence from Canada  

The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence of the role of information professionals in knowledge management programs. 386 information professionals working in Canadian organizations were selected from the Special Libraries Association’s Who’s Who in Special Libraries 2001/2002 and questionnaire with a stamped self-addressed envelope for its return was sent to each one of them. 63 questionnaires were completed and returned, and 8 in-depth interviews conducted. About 59% of the information professionals surveyed are working in organizations that have knowledge management programs with about 86% of these professionals being involved in the programs. Factors such as gender, age, and educational background (i.e. highest educational qualifications and discipline) did not seem to have any relationship with involvement in knowledge management programs. Many of those involved in the programs are playing key roles, such as the design of the information architecture, development of taxonomy, or content management of the organization’s intranet. Others play lesser roles, such as providing information for the intranet, gathering competitive intelligence, or providing research services as requested by the knowledge management team.

Ajiferuke, Isola. Informing Science Institute (2003). Articles>Knowledge Management

Running a Successful Job Bank  

To run a successful STC Employment Information Committee, you need methods for matching job seekers and employers. You need to obtain information on the qualifications of job seekers, find available jobs, and inform employers and job seekers. You also need to advertise your job bank. The job bank for the Lone Star Chapter provides examples of the methods.

Masse, Roger E. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC

Running with "KEDS": Document Control in Lotus Notes  

Many companies have faced the challenge of putting their policy and procedure documents online, usually in a network or Intranet. KEMET Electronics Corporation had the extra hurdle of achieving complete document control online, The solution is a program cal!ed 'KEDS' (KEMET Electronic Document System).

Ries, Ken. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Content Management>Software

RUP and Goal-Directed Design: Toward a New Development Process

Interaction design methodologies, such as Goal-Directed Design, tackle the software development process from the top down by defining specific product requirements and interface behavior based on research and user needs. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) and other agile programming methodologies attack software development from the bottom up. RUP creates fluid efficiencies for iterating product development during the construction phase in order to react to changing product requirements while still producing shipping code.

Cronin, Dave. Cooper Interaction Design (2003). Articles>Project Management>Programming

Salpicaderos Digitales

Los salpicaderos digitales (digital dashboards) mejor conocidos como cuadros de mando digitales son una herramienta de visualización en tiempo real de los indicadores críticos de negocio que ayudan a la toma de decisiones empresariales. Su uso se extiende y avanza desde la élite ejecutiva hacia la ubicuidad.

Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2004). (Spanish) Articles>User Interface>Management

SAPHelp: A Multilingual Authoring Tool  

SAPhelp is a proprietary authoring tool for documenting and translating on-line. It allows development, documentation, and translation to function concurrently. Its documentation structure lessens the need for redundant storage of texts. It provides version and authorization control and assigns work to authors and translators.

Ladd, Dennis D. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Content Management>Localization>Machine Translation

Sarbanes-Oxley and Financial Accountability

In the financial documentation realm, there are so many new buzz words, but they all boil down to the documentation equivalent of bean counting.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>Documentation>Management

Seeking a More Dynamic Website

Putting content in a database will not inherently make your website more dynamic. Making sure that content providers keep information fresh, interesting, and relevant will make your website more dynamic -- and ultimately more useful.

Byrne, Tony. CMSworks (2004). Articles>Web Design>Content Management

Selecting a Content Management System  

Learn about what a content management system (CMS) does and the different types of systems available in order to better understand how to select a new system or replace an existing one with a CMS that will be more effective for your organization.

Doyle, Bob. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Assessment

Selecting a Content-Management System  

It's not about buying a tool; it's about understanding your requirements.

Hackos, JoAnn T. and Tina Hedlund. ComTech Services (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Selecting a Content-Management System  

A discussion of the features and functions of content management software packages.

ComTech Services (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Selecting the Right Single Sourcing Tool  

Tools and technologies available for single sourcing and content management have grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, and indications are that they will continue to do so for some time to come. Understanding just what they do, and what kind of tools you need for your single sourcing or content management strategy can be confusing. The tools can be expensive, and a wrong decision can be costly. This session will cover authoring tools, content management tools, workflow, and delivery tools. This session will discuss a number of representative tools and provide guidelines for developing criteria for evaluating tools.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Self-Directed Work Teams  

Describes how a team of employees with broad control over the direction and outcome of a project can work more efficiently than a single individual assigned the same tasks.

McNeill, Angie D. Intercom (2000). Articles>Management>Collaboration

Service-Oriented Project Management

The primary reason most projects fail is because the focus of the execution and the measurement of projects is too narrow and inwardly directed.

Manas, Jerry. Gantthead (2008). Articles>Project Management

Setting Up Business Stakeholder Interviews Part 2

In part one, Michael shared how to navigate company politics to set up great stakeholder interviews. Here he covers his five tips for navigating company politics, avoiding client bias, and eliciting the information you need to inform your design.

Beavers, Michael. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Interviewing>Project Management>User Centered Design

The Seven Challenges of Implementing a Content Management System

The term 'double-edged sword' may have been created with content management systems in mind. On one edge, they hold great promise for organizations in terms of their ability to create and manage content that is more accurate, less costly to produce, and more consistent in appearance and message. On the adjacent edge, they can present a myriad of challenges and barriers in their implementation and ultimate acceptance by the people using them - and purchasing them.

Trotter, Paul. Content Wrangler, The (2007). Articles>Content Management>Management

Sex, Lies, and CMS Vendors

Despite an 11+ year history in the marketplace, CMS technology remains poorly understood by many prospective buyers. In the meantime, the field of available suppliers has never been broader or noisier. Most CMS salespeople I know are good educators, but they also have quotas to meet. Under these circumstances, vendors will sometimes short-cut important discussions about functionality and pricing with simple -- but not always completely truthful -- answers. So here's a list of 10 common myths you might hear during the sales process.

Byrne, Tony. CMSwatch (2006). Articles>Content Management>Marketing