TPC Program Snapshots: Developing Curricula and Addressing Challenges    

This article reports results from a survey of US technical and professional communication undergraduate programs concerning core concepts emphasized and most commonly taught procedures, skills, and tools. Snapshot views of current programs are derived from the results, and the developmental processes and directions of four new programs are described in more detail. The article concludes with challenges for programs to maintain humanistic concerns while also providing effective professional and technical preparation.

Allen, Nancy J. and Steven T. Benninghoff. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Management>Case Studies

UI Design Cuts McAfee's Support Calls by 90%

When McAfee launched it's new ProtectionPilot software in the summer of 2004, the number of support calls they received was drastically less than expected and what is typical of a software launch. The article on softwareceo.com presents 23 tips attributed to McAfee's success with the ProtectionPilot launch.

IxDA Resource Library (2005). Design>User Interface>Case Studies

Usability Evaluation of the Spatial OLAP Visualization and Analysis Tool (SOVAT)  

Increasingly sophisticated technologies, such as On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), are being leveraged for conducting community health assessments (CHA). Little is known about the usability of OLAP and GIS interfaces with respect to CHA. We conducted an iterative usability evaluation of the Spatial OLAP Visualization and Analysis Tool (SOVAT), a software application that combines OLAP and GIS. A total of nine graduate students and six community health researchers were asked to think-aloud while completing five CHA questions using SOVAT. The sessions were analyzed after every three participants and changes to the interface were made based on the findings. Measures included elapsed time, answers provided, erroneous actions, and satisfaction. Traditional OLAP interface features were poorly understood by participants, and combined OLAP-GIS features needed to be better emphasized. The results suggest that the changes made to the SOVAT interface resulted in increases in both usability and user satisfaction.

Scotch, Mathew, Bambang Parmanto and Valerie Monaco. Journal of Usability Studies (2007). Articles>Usability>EPSS>Case Studies

Usability in Practice: Company Profile of Hylotek

Which companies are actually practicing usability, and what does usability mean to them? Who's investing time and money into usability, and what kind of return are they receiving on their investment in the real world?

Giangrossi, Diane. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Case Studies

Use Case Classics

A use case is a detailed description of a user's interaction with a system. That's it. It's pretty simple; somewhat general, rather vague. That's the way it should be. A use case really amounts to nothing more than plain old 'documentation.' It can be applied to a business process, a complex software system, your morning routine, a wedding ceremony, or a historical event. The only requirements are an 'actor' and an object to be acted upon.

Kass, Andrew. BA Collective (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Case Studies

The Use of Stories in Design: The Get2Grip Design Project for Work Experience  

The complexity of new technology demands more than one participant in the design process to imagine future products and systems, and this is practitioners in design might learn from other professions in the development phase. But that indicate that design industries might have to challenge themselves in changing work practice in the development phase of a design.

People and Product (2005). Design>User Centered Design>User Experience>Case Studies

A User-Centered Approach to Designing a New Top-Level Structure for a Large and Diverse Corporate Web Site

In January 1998, Kodak introduced a new top-level structure and visual design for its Web site. This paper describes the user-centered approach utilized in the design process. We discovered that combining the knowledge gained from a variety of data collection methods was critical to understanding and defining Web site user requirements. We also found an on-line preview and survey to be a useful tool for assessing user acceptance of new designs. A sampling of results is provided to illustrate the process we used and to discuss its effectiveness.

Yu, Jack J., Prasad V. Prabhu and Wayne C. Neale. HFweb (1998). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Case Studies

Using Participative Inquiry in Usability Analysis to Align a Development Team’s Mental Model with its Users' Needs  

In this web site usability case study, two methods of participative inquiry are used to align a development team’s objectives with their users’ needs and to promote the team’s awareness of the benefit of qualitative usability analysis. Findings reveal a web site that lacks integration between its components and differences between the team and its users’ definitions of a “customer-focused” web site. The study produced an implementation blueprint based on a cognitive-oriented instead of an information-oriented taxonomy. This blueprint guide conveys intangible concepts that the team intuited or observed during contextual interviews and redefines its new web site usability strategies.

Kneifel, Alix A. and Carol Guerrero. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability>Case Studies

Vendor View: An Interview with Greg Simidian    

Interview with Greg Simidian, Managing Director of company information vendor Perfect Information. Discusses the company itself and how it has changed over the years, concentrating particularly on its customer relations. Considers relations between vendors and intermediaries generally, covering contract negotiation and the impact of end users, and also considering recruitment and skills issues for the information industry. Speculates on the future of the industry, considering social networking in particular. Reflects on Greg Simidian's previous career, considering the benefits of working for both mainstream and niche information providers.

Simidian, Greg. Business Information Review (2007). Articles>Interviews>Databases>Case Studies

A Visible Ideology: A Document Series in a Women's Clothing Company    

Studying corporate documents provides clues to the larger philosophy of the organization. This article explores a sales document redesign that indicates a subtle shift in ideology for a women's clothing company. The corporation uses direct sales to market clothes to a variety of women. In one season, the documents change from relatively outdated designs to more updated, professional layouts. However, the content of the documents changes very little. The author contends that the document redesign indicates a move to a more feminist out-look for the company and uses the concept of ethos to describe how the document design represents a slowly changing ethos for the corporation. A specific content shift towards feminism is, however, less apparent.

Cronn-Mills, Kirstin. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Document Design>Case Studies

The WebWord Content Management System

The WebWord content management system is not technical, it is human. In fact, the technology is minimal and the web site works because a human understands and maintains the content using very simple tools. While this approach consumes a lot of time, it is simple and cost effective. Small and medium web sites can get along without using content management systems.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Design>Content Management>Case Studies>Web Design

WebWorks Publisher In Action: A Project Management Perspective  

From October 2001 through August 2002, a team of two technical authors converted the documentation for a Web Content Management System from a series of static manuals to a single-sourced, dynamically delivered context-sensitive online help/print manual combination. This paper covers the challenges encountered and overcome when resources became more scarce and demands rose. It offers some technical insight in the application of Adobe FrameMaker and WebWorks Publisher Professional to achieve the goal of manageable documentation.

Gill, Harold B., III and John Swymer. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Content Management>Project Management>Case Studies

Writing in the Presence of Disaster: A Case Study of an Aviation Investigation Report  

The experience of a documentation company in working on a major aircraft accident investigation report.

Thurston, John. Writer's Block (2005). Articles>Writing>Reports>Case Studies

Yahoo! Pattern Library

Erin Malone, Matt Leacock, and Chanel Wheeler presented their work creating a pattern library for Yahoo! at IA Summit 2005.

IxDA Resource Library (2005). Presentations>Information Design>Case Studies

四个国家，四种未来：Tom Klinkowstein的地平线项目工作坊

过去的一年半，Tom Klinkowstein在四个国家和一些设计学生举行了一些工作坊的活动，叫做地平线项目，这个项目采用了NASA科学家John Anderson的方法。工作坊在纽约进行了半天，在土耳其伊斯坦布尔进行了两天，在中国上海进行了三天，在印度孟买进行了五天。

Klinkowstein, Tom. uiGarden (2005). (Chinese) Articles>Education>Information Design>Case Studies

Using DITA to Develop a New Information Architecture at BMC Software

The need for us to customize BSM solutions by integrating different software solutions, combined with the maturation of tools for XML-based authoring, make this an ideal time to implement a new information development strategy. After researching materials about content management and studying success stories from companies who have implemented structured authoring, we launched a pilot project.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Group, The (2007). Articles>Content Management>Case Studies>DITA

Fifteen Great Examples of Web Typography. Part 2

What better way to start the year than with a little typographic inspiration. Last year I published 15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography, and owing to its popularity and people’s sateless appetite for lists, here are another 15.

I Love Typography (2008). Design>Web Design>Typography>Case Studies

Case Study: Discovering Plone Content Management System (Part 1)

DISCOVER Magazine, one of the most widely read science mags in the US, had out grown its dated Web Content Management infrastructure for www.discovermagazine.com. Times were changing, multi-media was big and in general Web and CMS technology had moved forward significantly. After analyzing current needs and taking stock of the Web CMS landscape DISCOVER ultimately selected the open source Plone platform. This is a two-part series where we look at the CMS features which convinced DISCOVER to chose Plone.

Paley, Scott. CMSwire (2007). Articles>Content Management>Case Studies>Plone

Ethos as Market Maker: The Creative Role of Technical Marketing Communication in an Aviation Start-Up    

This study examines how a very light jet start-up, Eclipse Aviation, changed its ethos appeals in order to survive the loss of its principally declared innovation, a jet aircraft engine. Eclipse Aviation’s corporate transformation from a spin-off company to a convergence-of-innovation company hinged on modifying an early marketing strategy. To overcome the loss of the jet engine, employees had to radically modify earlier expert representations and adopt rhetorical appeals that more closely parallel what Miller described as "cyborg discourse." To understand how Eclipse Aviation survived the typically fatal loss of a stated primary innovation and to explore the implications that this particular start-up’s rupture has for technology transfer and technical marketing, this study centers its analysis on a Web site that marketers used to "ventilate" the company and prevent financial collapse. The transformation in the company’s marketing strategy illustrates how cyborg ethos appeals aggregate and discipline distributed stakeholder roles.

Mara, Andrew. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Marketing>Case Studies

Topic-Based Writing to the Rescue: Project Considerations for Managers

The purpose of this case study is neither to simply rehash the project nor to provide a pressure-cooker story that others can use as a comparative benchmark. This article looks at the decision points within the project and provides an analysis from a real-life, practical approach that other technical communication managers can use when called upon to engage in a rescue project of their own.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. TechCom Manager (2008). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>Case Studies

The Joint Czech and Slovak Digital Parliamentary Library    

After the split of the Czechoslovak Republic into two republics in 1993 the idea of creating a common digital parliamentary library originated. The Czech Parliamentary Library started this project in 1995 and Slovakia joined in 2002. According to the agreement between of the two parliaments the joint digital library should in its complete shape contain the complete full texts of parliamentary prints (proposals, interpolations, explanations, decisions, invitations) and stenographical documents (shorthand writings) from 1848 until the present, in electronic form. The aim is to create and operate an automatic system of current and historical parliamentary documents. In 2000, the project was awarded the prestigious `Czech @' prize by the International Conference on Internet Use in Public Administration and Self-Government. The Joint Czech and Slovak Digital Parliamentary Library is now widely used in both countries.

Malackova, Eva and Karel Sosna. IFLA Journal (2007). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Case Studies

Employing Log Metrics to Evaluate Search Behaviour and Success: Case Study BBC Search Engine    

This paper argues that metrics can be generated from search transactional web logs that can help evaluate search engine effectiveness. Search logs from the BBC website were analysed and metrics extracted. Two search metrics — the time lapse between searches and the number of searches in a session — were developed to see whether they could measure search success or satisfaction. In all, 4 million search statements by 900,000 users were evaluated. The BBC search engine possessed a number of functional attributes which sought to improve retrieval and these were subjected to the two metrics to help determine how successful they were in practice. There was some evidence to support the proposition that the search outcome metrics did indeed indicate the effectiveness of engine functionality. The authors argue that this result is significant in that the identification of search outcome metrics will pave the way for assessing the effectiveness of site specific search engines and a greater understanding of the effectiveness of search engine functionality.

Huntington, Paul, David Nicholas and Hamid R. Jamali. Journal of Information Science (2007). Articles>Web Design>Case Studies>Log Analysis

Untying the Knot of Knowledge Management Measurement: A Study of Six Public Service Agencies in Singapore    

This paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing research in knowledge management (KM) by presenting a study conducted in six public service agencies in Singapore. The study was guided by three research foci, namely, (1) to elucidate the nebulous nature of KM initiatives, (2) to uncover the motivation behind KM measurement and (3) to identify the various elements of a KM initiative that can be measured. Data collected from the public service agencies revealed that KM initiatives were generally top-down and technology-focused. Project management and the need to quantify the value of KM initiatives drove KM measurement. The measurement indicators adopted by the agencies encompassed four elements of measurement: activities, knowledge assets, organizational processes and business outcomes. In conclusion, this paper highlights two practical implications for the design of a KM measurement regime and suggests a number of possible directions for further research.

Chua, Alton Y.K. and Dion H. Goh. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Knowledge Management>Case Studies>Asia

Can Filesharers Be Triggered by Economic Incentives? Results of an Experiment    

Illegal filesharing on the internet leads to considerable financial losses for artists and copyright owners as well as producers and sellers of music. Thus far, measures to contain this phenomenon have been rather restrictive. However, there are still a considerable number of illegal systems, and users are able to decide quite freely between legal and illegal downloads because the latter are still difficult to sanction. Recent economic approaches account for the improved bargaining position of users. They are based on the idea of revenue-splitting between professional sellers and peers. In order to test such an innovative business model, the study reported in this article carried out an experiment with 100 undergraduate students, forming five small peer-to-peer networks. The networks were confronted with different economic conditions. The results indicate that even experienced filesharers hold favourable attitudes towards revenue-splitting. They seem to be willing to adjust their behaviour to different economic conditions.

Quiring, Oliver, Benedikt Von Walter and Richard Atterer. New Media and Society (2008). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Case Studies

Failed vs. Unfailed Redesigns of Newspaper Websites

A comparison of the redesigned websites of two Swedish newspapers, GP.se and HD.se, that were both launched in late 2006.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Case Studies