Review: Mapping Websites: Digital Media Design  

When we are trying to envision the structure of a Web site, we may sketch diagrams on white boards, create outlines, fill whole walls with yellow stickies. Kahn and Lenk offer many sophisticated ways of visualizing your site. If you are planning a new site or reorganizing an existing site, this book provides an historical context for your information architecture, in-depth studies of complex sites, and a wide range of inspiring diagrams and site maps.

Price, Jonathan R. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>Web Design

Review: Mastering HTML and XHTML  

In this book, the Rays have put together most (if not everything) that you need to know to create HTML/XHTML documents. Although not groundbreaking, the information is presented in a straightforward style and arranged in an easily accessible manner. Basically, it's a 'one-stop' reference for prospective coders.

Staples, Jeff. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Web Design>HTML

Review: A Matter of Style: On Writing and Technique

Many editors and writers will find A Matter of Style useful, but as readers, most will find it frustrating. Matthew Clark, a professor of classical literature and a musician, addresses the book to editors and writers, both creative and non-fiction, and especially to academic writers. The book is not an introduction and Clark assumes that his readers “already have a good grounding in the basics of grammar and style” (p. iv). He skips quickly through a chapter called “A Few Points of Grammar” to get to his real target, “questions of artistry” (p. 1). So far, so good, but problems soon develop around many of these nodes. The level of audience assumed by the book frequently varies. The book functions in many passages as an introduction to various classical arcana of questionable utility. Even more than questions of artistry, Clark deals with “questions about style” that are “questions of taste” and so “do not have definitive answers.” As many critics before him, he claims that “taste can still be discussed” (p. 14). The question is, “How?”

Thurston, John. Writer's Block (2002). Articles>Reviews>Style Guides

Review: The Metaphysics of Information Quality: Comments on Producing Quality Technical Information    

The expressed promise in the title of Producing Quality Technical Information is that following its prescriptions will yield 'quality' technical information. This commentary asks what the term quality means here and whether the manual delivers on its promise. In other words, which of the several senses of quality is intended in the title, and the does the publication deliver as promised? That is, which of the major quality schemes corresponds to the rationale of the text: legalistic quality, in which quality is conformity to a long list of detailed regulations and specifications (as in ISO 9000); principle-based quality, in which quality is the result of working according to a small set of broad precepts; or mystical quality, in which quality is an indefinable property or spiritual construct, toward which virtuous people should aspire.

Weiss, Edmond H. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Reviews>Quality>Assessment

Review: Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications

Microsoft is one of the largest software companies in the world. Thus, with their rich experience in documentation it is only natural that they share it with the rest of the IT industry. The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, Third Edition (MSTP) is the latest step in this direction and takes care of latest technologies and technical terms.

Sharma, Sangeet. Indus (2005). Articles>Reviews>Style Guides>Technical Writing

Review: Minimalism and Documentation  

What is minimalism? Is minimalist documentation 'risky,' and if so, what can be done to mitgate the risk? Was the structure of Windows 95's Help based on John Carroll's Minimalist Model or was 'the result' more a Microsoft business decision -- or a bit of both?

Eiler, Mary Ann. Kairos (1997). Articles>Reviews>Documentation>Minimalism

Review: Nardi and O'Day's Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart    

Information. The word has become ubiquitous with the computer and the so-called revolution that has occurred as a result of this electronic gizmo so many of us use on a daily basis. We have linked the word with many other terms to describe how information functions in this new electronically-driven world: information technology, information management, information superhighway. Nardi and O’Day (1999), however, have hitched information to another term—--ecology--—that provides us with another way to think through what it means to work, learn, and play with and through the computer-mediated medium. As with any descriptor that has metaphoric possibilities, inventive minds can conjure a seemingly infinite number of ways to probe the expanded meanings that a metaphor can provide.

Johnson, Robert R. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Reviews>User Centered Design>Tropes

Review: New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication: Research, Theory, Practice  

Anderson, Brockmann, and Miller have compiled an anthology of essays devoted to research in technical and scientific communication that should be read by any professional writing teacher who hopes to maintain a career in this field and by graduate students who are contemplating applied communication as an area of concentration. While the editors have not dealt with the pragmatic reasons for doing research (preferring to stress the scholarly motives), this anthology could well be subtitled “How to Write for Promotion and Tenure if You Teach Technical Writing in an English Department.” For technical writing teachers facing the publish or perish mandate in English departments, the essays exemplify the kinds of research that will help one survive amid literature-oriented colleagues who often think that technical writing teachers have nothing to publish or teach that has any depth or value. The essays, 12 in all, cover five currently popular main research areas in scientific and technical communication.

Tebeaux, Elizabeth. JAC (1983). Articles>Reviews>TC

Review: Our Little Help Machines and Their Invisibilities    

This paper examines the four kinds of invisibility Johnson-Eilola associates with minimalist help systems: fast information access that reduces user reflection and questioning, impersonal writing style that assumes the Shannon-Weaver communication model, narrow scope that leads to training but not teaching, and interface designs that oversimplify user tasks. For each of the four, the paper questions Johnson-Eilola's conclusions. Ultimately, the problems with truncated online help systems may disappear, as help systems are increasingly linking to the web, where adequate conceptual information is often supplied and opportunities for a social context for help are available.

Farkas, David K. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Reviews>Documentation

Review: Paper Prototyping

Carolyn Snyder's Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces provides the only complete guide to paper prototyping. It teaches you everything you need to know to successfully do paper prototyping and offers many practical tips. However, only about a third of the book is actually about doing paper prototyping. The majority of the book's content comprises a basic reference on usability testing. While some of the information on usability testing describes how to test paper prototypes, most of it is applicable to any type of usability testing. If you're already an expert in usability testing, you may not find this information as useful, but Snyder has honed her approach to usability testing over her many years of experience as a usability professional and provides a wealth of practical information.

Gabriel-Petit, Pabini. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>Methods

Review: PC Annoyances, Second Edition

It's impossible to have the answers to all the problems you encounter on a PC, but Bass touches on a bit of everything.

Evans, Meryl K. Meryl.net (2005). Articles>Reviews>Technology

Review: The Persona Lifecycle: Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design

The Persona Lifecycle describes the value of personas, and offers detailed techniques and tools to conceive, create, communicate, and use personas to create [great] product designs. John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin provide examples, samples, and illustrations for persona practitioners to imitate and model. It is important to emphasize that the use of personas is a method that compliments other user-centered design techniques, including user testing, scenario-based design, and cognitive walkthroughs.

Dick, David J. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Reviews>User Centered Design>Personas

Review: PowerPoint, ¿Anatema o Bendición?

La mayoría de las presentaciones usan PowerPoint en su vertiente más fácil, muchas transparencias llenas de listas de puntos. Muchos ponentes, encima, se limitan a recitarlas. Pero con PowerPoint es posible también salirse del camino trillado y hacer presentaciones que consiguen su objetivo: comunicar claramente un mensaje.

Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Reviews>Software>Microsoft PowerPoint

Review: Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design and Development  

I was excited to receive my copy of Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design and Development, because I was in the middle of a new software development project and would be responsible for approving the look and feel of the user interface (UI). I was interested in learning more about evolving standards, the proper selection of interface controls based on users' tasks, the best way to decide on and create UI style sheets for use by the development staff, and the problem of quantifying that elusive quality called usability. I hoped this book would enlighten me with practical examples I could put to immediate use. Unfortunately, in that regard, Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design and Development was mostly a disappointment. It might have been better titled A Project Manager's Handbook, because the author's treatment of the topic is extremely broad but not very deep.

Anderson, Darrill. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>User Interface

Review: Preparing Learners for e-Learning  

Finally, give this book to the CEO who blithely assumes that the corporation can simply replace classroom learning with e-learning without missing a beat. This book goes a long way toward dampening the hype surrounding online education by acknowledging that e-learning requires a shift in organizational priorities, teacher and learner attitudes, and ways of operating.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Education>Online

Review: Professional Blogging

There's a new blog out there that looks promising—professional bloggers can now turn to Performancing for advice. This new blog is focused on professional blogging by offering keywords tips, advice about headline styles, and how to increase your blog traffic.

Hartzer, Bill. Search Engine Guide (2005). Articles>Reviews>Web Design

Review: Quality Technical Information: Paving the Way for Usable Print and Web Interface Design    

Principles of information style and design have been around for years. Look at the shelf life of Strunk and White's classic The Elements of Style, published in 1959 and still a bestseller. Producing Quality Technical Information is a gem of a book, whose precise, bullet-style list of seven requirements and a checklist is now even more insightful in the fast-paced world of online information and the World-Wide Web. As a writer, I'm amazed how the IBM authors crystallized the essence of good information design in less than 100 pages. This commentary describes how the book's seven qualities and thirty individual requirements can easily and usefully be extrapolated to address key issues of interface design and usability for today's professional designers and developers.

Mandel, Theo. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Reviews>User Interface>Usability

Review: Questioning the Motives of Technical Communication and Rhetoric: Steven Katz's 'Ethic Of Expediency'    

By emphasizing the negative meanings of words, ignoring variations in translations, and quoting out of context, Steven B. Katz has argued in an influential article that an 'ethic of expediencyunderlies technical communication and deliberative rhetoric, and by extension writing pedagogy and practice based on it.' Katz's assertion misrepresents the motive of technical communication and its pedagogy, and it brings discredit to the professions of technical communication and the teaching of technical communication. His attempt to discredit the motive of technical communication is part of a two-millennia-long contest for status between intellectuals and the working classes, and it creates unnecessary mistrust at a time in history when people must focus even more on cooperating socially in order to sustain democratic cultures and our physical environment for future generations.

Moore, Patrick. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Reviews>TC

Review: Reporting Technical Information  

When I first picked up Reporting Technical Information, I thought from the title it was going to be a primer on writing technical reports. Instead, this book turned out to be a basic, though somewhat better than average, textbook on technical writing.

Coleman, Colleen. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Reports>Technical Writing

Review: Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century  

Ever wonder about the relationship between academia and the corporate world? Or if you are on the corporate side (as I am), have you wondered why academia operates as it does? (And vice versa.) If so, Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century offers great insights that may help you gain an understanding of how each world operates, why they operate as they do, and how the two worlds influence and can alter the future of technical communication.

Staples, Jeff. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>TC>History

Review: Review of 'Podcasting Solutions: Complete Guide to Podcasting'

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Podcasting Solutions: A Complete Guide to Podcasting by Michael W. Goeghegan and Dan Klass. I was able to digest the material quickly. The frustrating thing for me was that the title just didn't seem to fit the approachable and practical content that made the book such a treasure. For example, the subtitle 'A Complete Guide' is a bit overstated, because it is not a compendium but a getting starting guide. Especially as time goes by and the field progresses, and more techniques and tools are developed, this book will become more out of date.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Reviews>Multimedia>Podcasting

Review: Review of "User Interface Design for Programmers"

This is ostensibly a review of Joel Spolsky's book "User Interface Design for Programmers" by way of a comparison with Jef Raskin's "The Humane Interface."

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2005). Articles>Reviews

Review: Review of Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century

Ever wonder about the relationship between academia and the corporate world? Or, maybe if you are on the corporate side (as I am), have you wondered why academia operates as it does? (And vice versa.) If so, Reshaping technical communication: New directions and challenges for the 21st century offers great insights that might help you gain an understanding of how each world operates, why they operate as they do, and how the two worlds affect and can alter the future of technical communication.

Staples, Jeff. Usability Interface (2003). Articles>Reviews>TC

Review: Review of Cladonia Exchanger XML Editor

This article is a review of the Exchanger XML Editor version 3.2 from the Cladonia company. Being such a broad field, the XML Editor category is necessarily far-reaching, and can cover both database management systems and authoring tools. For this reason, this review narrows the scope by looking at the suitability of Exchanger for use by technical communicators and Help authors to create and edit manuals, user guides and Help systems. Much of the focus of this article is therefore on the software's suitability for DocBook or DITA authoring, and its appropriateness for users without coding skills.

Self, Tony. WritersUA (2006). Articles>Reviews>Software>XML