categoryallspace2-Design http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design A directory of resources about design in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design http://tc.eserver.org/31538.html http://tc.eserver.org/31538.html Brand has become an integral part of the employee communicator's role as organizations recognize the importance of employee behaviors in building brand. When it comes time to integrate brand elements into the intranet or portal, good usability practices and testing can guide that integration, ensuring desired employee behaviors. http://tc.eserver.org/31539.html http://tc.eserver.org/31539.html People and organizations generally understand the concept of the Internet's global reach. However, few see their Web presence as international, and even fewer have sites appropriate for audiences beyond their borders. As global competition grows and new markets emerge, building an effective international Web presence is becoming ever more critical. http://tc.eserver.org/31545.html http://tc.eserver.org/31545.html In the dot.com boom of the 1990s, an electronic goldrush began as companies flocked like new age prospectors seeking to plant their stake in this digital revolution that has today transformed the ways companies communicate and do business around the globe. Because the web is becoming a viable communications channel, it's important that communications professionals understand how the content they're putting up on a web site is delivering to users the kind of value that is realizing a return on their investment. http://tc.eserver.org/31560.html http://tc.eserver.org/31560.html Spending on search engine marketing (SEM) is rising dramatically, yet surprisingly few companies are measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns. In a short survey conducted by web analytics vendor NetIQ, more than 800 participants responded to questions about their search engine marketing efforts and their attempts to measure success. The survey responses provide interesting insights into the state of search engine marketing ROI. http://tc.eserver.org/31524.html http://tc.eserver.org/31524.html What began in 1998 as the Colorado Digitization Project is now known as the Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP). The CDP’s Heritage West database represents not only the primary product of the organization, but also one of the oldest continuously operating collaborative repositories of cultural heritage metadata in the country. As a basis for the author’s forthcoming quantitative and qualitative analysis of Dublin Core metadata in Heritage West, the following article offers a history of how the CDP has, over time, organized and managed the metadata provision for its digitization projects. http://tc.eserver.org/31507.html http://tc.eserver.org/31507.html Processes evolve. Over time and several redesigns, a few points screamed to be kept in mind: communicate with the client, be scalable, plan to plan, test your assumptions, analyze your current site, and so on. We ran these mini-philosophies by industry leaders and newbies alike. The result? Our collection of things to think about evolved into—drum roll, please—10 EXPERT TIPS TO A SUCCESSFUL REDESIGN. Redesign is happening. Address the need. And stay on track while you do it. http://tc.eserver.org/31508.html http://tc.eserver.org/31508.html We urgently need a quick crash course on web site management; otherwise, connecting with potential customers will become a very tough challenge. Lucky are those who have a unique domain name without the additional baggage of extraneous language, numbers, dashes or slashes. Studies have shown that 90 percent of business names are problematic. These problems are serious issues for achieving higher visibility. http://tc.eserver.org/31509.html http://tc.eserver.org/31509.html When surfing the web these days, you often come across web sites that suffer from stagnation—they look old, obsolete or appear to have been designed by an amateur. Your web site needs continuous improvement to capture and engage your visitor’s attention. If not, he or she can easily click away to your competitor’s site. Here are twelve steps to help prevent stagnation. http://tc.eserver.org/31510.html http://tc.eserver.org/31510.html Little things mean a lot. Especially online. Microcontent—or the headlines, decks, subheads and other 'small' pieces of web copy—actually do most of the communicating on your web site. Handled poorly, microcontent can confuse and frustrate web visitors. Here's how to write microcontent to communicate to—instead of discombobulate—your readers. http://tc.eserver.org/31511.html http://tc.eserver.org/31511.html When SwissAir Flight 111 crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in early September of 1998, most people didn’t realize the accident would begin to usher in a new era—using the Internet for crisis communication. In the years since, more and more companies and not-for-profits have jumped on the bandwagon and identified their web sites as critical tools for crisis communication response, particularly since Sept. 11. http://tc.eserver.org/31512.html http://tc.eserver.org/31512.html Admit it. Your intranet is a mess. What started out as a great idea for sharing information inside the company has turned into the corporate junk drawer—a jumbled collection of useful, not-so-useful, relevant, irrelevant, redundant, inconsistent and unmanaged stuff. While parts of it make you proud (perhaps the employee directory or news portal), taken as a whole, it just hasn’t lived up to all the grand ideas you had when you posted those first few pages. http://tc.eserver.org/31513.html http://tc.eserver.org/31513.html Confusing. Frustrating. Underutilized. Time-consuming. If you are like most communicators, these are just some of the words that come to mind when thinking about your organization’s employee portal. Intranets and employee portals have long been plagued by numerous challenges, including limited funding, poor navigation, content overload and changing technology. Add in growing user expectations, disengaged executives and differing opinions about what portals are and how they deliver tangible value, and it’s no wonder they are such sore spots for communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/31514.html http://tc.eserver.org/31514.html Did you know an intranet could actually be more global than the Internet? The interactions within an intranet are more intense and frequent, and anonymity is replaced with specificity—your real name, job title and location. Company management often believes that a unified employee communication intranet site will foster a community, a shared corporate culture and a universal standard. But a review of two U.S.-based global intranets reveals that today’s reality may fall short. http://tc.eserver.org/31515.html http://tc.eserver.org/31515.html Is your intranet failing to deliver value for your company and your staff? If so, time and money are being wasted. Research shows that employees can take twice as long to complete tasks and get information from a poor intranet as compared to one that is well designed. This wasted time can cost over US$1,000 each year, per employee, which translates to a cost of US$1 million for every 1,000 employees. So what can you do to improve your intranet? Here are 10 things to think about. http://tc.eserver.org/31517.html http://tc.eserver.org/31517.html A wiki is a web site that anybody can change. You may have already visited a wiki without even knowing it. Wikis are poised to become one of the most important online communication tools we’ve seen in a long time. While blogs are justifiably getting most of the attention paid to the online world these days, wikis are quietly weaving their way into both the external and internal communication world. http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html In this podcast, Noz Urbina talks about how Web 2.0 is changing the role of the technical communicator into one who drives product R&D and interaction design. The interview covers how the role of the technical communicator has evolved into a diversity of roles; how awareness of user needs and requirements allows technical communicators to get involved in product R&D and user interaction design; and how implementing a backwards flow of data from hundreds of internal and external users changes the role of a technical writer to one who aggregates, synthesizes, and ensures quality rather than one who merely writes. http://tc.eserver.org/31490.html http://tc.eserver.org/31490.html In this podcast, I talk with Alan Porter, vice president of Operations at WebWorks, about the Web 2.0 technologies they’re using to reach out to their customer base. In addition to using blogs, wikis, and social networks to connect with customers, WebWorks also uses wikis to facilitate communication and collaboration within their company. http://tc.eserver.org/31492.html http://tc.eserver.org/31492.html I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc. http://tc.eserver.org/31473.html http://tc.eserver.org/31473.html New conferencing and collaboration solutions are being announced at the pace of one or more tools per week. New versions and upgrades are promoted even more frequently, and in this avalanche of "this is the best, don't look anywhere else" claims, it is hard to distinguish the good from the average. How should you select your web conferencing tool? Which companies are more reliable and how do you find out? How can you be sure you will not be disappointed? These are tough questions to answer, as there are a million vendors out there and an army of supposed experts all claiming to have the best solution while offering different ones. http://tc.eserver.org/31474.html http://tc.eserver.org/31474.html Despite the Internet's emergence as a mainstream business tool, web conferencing can still be a daunting experience for first-timers and even seasoned presenters. For today's business professionals, it's not the technology that makes them apprehensive, but the knowledge that familiar ways of presenting are inadequate to execute an effective web conference. Provide someone with useful information and a little preparation, however, and that person can host an effective, efficient web conference. http://tc.eserver.org/31485.html http://tc.eserver.org/31485.html In many organizations, when economic conditions improve, funding becomes available for investment in internal communication technologies. While the potential expansion of budgets is welcome news to communicators around the globe, capitalizing on it requires careful, thoughtful prioritization of still-precious resources. So what type of focused investments should communicators consider? Intranet and employee portal improvements should be high on the list. http://tc.eserver.org/31469.html http://tc.eserver.org/31469.html 以”话题”为单位，通过博客的形式展开讨论；话题围绕用户体验设计、用户体验团队、用户体验咨询和评测等；并向所有设计同行开放投稿. http://tc.eserver.org/31409.html http://tc.eserver.org/31409.html When you measure hits on inter/intranet sites, you are measuring overall volume of usage -- how many times parts of your site have been opened. However, hits don't distinguish between the opening of an entire page or a single illustration. There are many additional ways of measuring usage. However, measuring the "userability" of a site is just as important in order to improve usage numbers. But the first place any communicator should start when measuring the effectiveness of electronic communications is to identify the original objectives for putting something on-line. Conducting some baseline audience research upfront to make sure your electronic solutions will be as effective as possible and then measuring afterward to see if the intended objectives are being met. http://tc.eserver.org/31412.html http://tc.eserver.org/31412.html According to the report "State of the News Media 2005" from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, "more than a third of Americans, some 36 percent, are regular consumers of four or more different kinds of news outlets—network news, local TV, newspapers, cable, radio, the Internet and magazines." http://tc.eserver.org/31415.html http://tc.eserver.org/31415.html For the last 19 years, Keith Moore has hosted a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called "How Colleges and Universities Can Obtain National (and Regional) Publicity." In a sign of the times, this year's conference included a session in which we focused not on getting into the major mass media, but on the capabilities of the machines that sit on our desktops. In short, we looked at the evolving world of so-called "micro media," tools that are enabling us to create new online communities in ways never before possible. http://tc.eserver.org/31418.html http://tc.eserver.org/31418.html The user of a table would be looking for one or more data points. Therefore, if we set a task that uses a table, and zebra striping does make things easier, then we would expect to see improvements in accuracy and speed. http://tc.eserver.org/31419.html http://tc.eserver.org/31419.html Any community—online or off—must start slowly, and be nurtured. You cannot “just add community.” It must be cared for, and hosted; it takes time and people with great communication skills to set the tone and tend the conversation. http://tc.eserver.org/31430.html http://tc.eserver.org/31430.html While the use of a news section on the company intranet's home page is widespread, communicators need to ask themselves how effective this is as a way to avoid mixed messages and information overload. Does it reduce information overload, or increase it? And how can the news section be used to effectively cut through informational clutter? http://tc.eserver.org/31431.html http://tc.eserver.org/31431.html Professional communicators and attorneys have long stood side by side as both fought to win in court—one in the court of law, the other in the court of public opinion. These two sometimes wary compatriots, however, are now beginning to partner more frequently to garner the best results for the executive suite. http://tc.eserver.org/31443.html http://tc.eserver.org/31443.html Genesys, a system of medical care facilities in central Michigan, has introduced an innovative way to couple emerging mobile communication technology with sophisticated medical care. Recently, the hospital system introduced the use of hand-held wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) by physicians in its 440-bed system, which is made up of three local hospitals merged into one. http://tc.eserver.org/31446.html http://tc.eserver.org/31446.html For the last couple of months, I’ve been developing an online list of major trends that are transforming public relations, with links to sites, articles and quotes that in one way or another prove the point and that I know I’ll someday want to get back to. It’s something like my own personal tagging system, maintained in a wiki. http://tc.eserver.org/31384.html http://tc.eserver.org/31384.html The Internet is a free medium, just like roads and highways. There are those who walk and those who run, some who drive taxis, some Ferraris, and others tractor-trailers. To each his own-the roads are all free. Thank heaven. With such a powerful tool at our command, why is so much of the Internet so underutilized, and why is so much of Internet marketing so increasingly ineffective? http://tc.eserver.org/31386.html http://tc.eserver.org/31386.html Linda, an American living abroad in a country with limited merchandise, orders online for books, contact lenses, and smoked ham. Her Dutch husband buys from www.amazon.com and www.ebay.com because U.S.-based retail web sites offer a wide range of goods at a cheaper price than their adopted country, including lower import duties and lower shipping costs from U.S.-based cargo carriers. http://tc.eserver.org/31392.html http://tc.eserver.org/31392.html New technologies are changing the ways we can achieve excellence in communication. Three new web-based communication tools have caught the imagination of innovators and early adopters. Blogs and wikis are proliferating all over the Internet, and podcasts look like they will soon be commonplace. http://tc.eserver.org/31393.html http://tc.eserver.org/31393.html If ever there were a perfect tool for the corporate communication expert, blogging is it. Think of a blog as the 3D version of your capabilities, one in which you provide context and meaning to your work experience and expertise. So let's talk about how to blog well. http://tc.eserver.org/31394.html http://tc.eserver.org/31394.html If you're a professional communicator, chances are good you've already asked yourself whether it's time to start your own blog. But there's another tech question that you probably have not yet asked yourself, and perhaps you should: Is it time to start your own wiki? http://tc.eserver.org/31396.html http://tc.eserver.org/31396.html Branding has been called the most powerful idea in business, yet few companies consciously craft and promote their brand. Making a brand visible to an online audience can be an additional challenge. Studies show that searchers regard the companies that are placed on the first page of search engine results as the major players in the field. So how do you get the coveted page-one positioning? New technologies like RSS feeds are one way to accomplish this and make your brand more visible in the process. http://tc.eserver.org/31399.html http://tc.eserver.org/31399.html When news reports announced that Apple Computer was suing unnamed individuals (presumed to be employees) who had allegedly leaked information about a prototype Apple product to several blog news sites, it raised a number of questions. What does the lawsuit mean for freedom of expression and the role of journalists who serve an information-hungry audience? How will the courts balance the fundamental right of freedom of expression against a company's claims that trade secrets have been violated on a blog? http://tc.eserver.org/31352.html http://tc.eserver.org/31352.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31354.html http://tc.eserver.org/31354.html With China fast overtaking the United States as the world's largest online market, Rogers provides helpful information on how technical communicators can tailor their Web sites to appeal to Chinese visitors. http://tc.eserver.org/31355.html http://tc.eserver.org/31355.html Are you looking for ways to maximize your company's global Web presence? Look no further, as the authors have laid out a step-by-step plan for creating and designing a multilingual site. http://tc.eserver.org/31357.html http://tc.eserver.org/31357.html Is your company making the move from Information Mapping to DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture)? The author compares and contrasts the two methods and shares insight on how to ease the pain of switching from one to the other. http://tc.eserver.org/31362.html http://tc.eserver.org/31362.html In a continuation of his January column, Hart sheds some light on page layout and design—and gives color to a seemingly “black-and-white” concept. http://tc.eserver.org/31297.html http://tc.eserver.org/31297.html Film is dead. The history-changing miracle that made it possible to accurately reproduce anything the eye could perceive is now itself part of history. The cause of death? Digital imagery. But no one is shedding tears. It all began innocently in the mid-1980s when digital photos were a geeks-only, barely noticed novelty. It has since spread around the world in pandemic fashion. In its wake, entire industries have been killed off as more and more people succumb to the digital bug. http://tc.eserver.org/31298.html http://tc.eserver.org/31298.html In just a few short years, the digital camera has blown past its tipping point so completely that many younger shooters have never touched a piece of film. The instant gratification, the tiny camera size and the ability to share images with the world now defines the experience of photography. But if you want to make great digital photos, there are some things you need to know. http://tc.eserver.org/31299.html http://tc.eserver.org/31299.html Photography has become an essential element of the communication mix for the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and is used to reflect the diversity and international nature of the business. If executed properly, a photograph can help explain a technical point or issue in such a way that it makes sense to an audience outside of the shipping community. We initially decided to use photography to enhance the visual content of our annual report. We now also use it in company newsletters (both internal and external), brochures and exhibit stands. http://tc.eserver.org/31300.html http://tc.eserver.org/31300.html When you need to find an image for commercial use, how much consideration do you give to where it came from? Do you think about its provenance, its pedigree? Are the images you license sourced primarily from major distributors or from alternative suppliers, who may have access to more distinctive or original content? http://tc.eserver.org/31265.html http://tc.eserver.org/31265.html The ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools. http://tc.eserver.org/31266.html http://tc.eserver.org/31266.html The idea of rapid prototyping as it applies to instructional design, is to develop learning experiences in a continual design-evaluation cycle that continues throughout the life of the project. This cycle, known as the spiral cycle or layered approach, is considered to be iterative, meaning that products are continually improved as they cycle continues. http://tc.eserver.org/31267.html http://tc.eserver.org/31267.html This site is designed to provide information about instructional design principles and how they relate to teaching and learning. Instructional design, also know as instructional systems design, is the is the analysis of learning needs and systematic development of instruction. Instructional designers often use instructional technology or educational technology as tools for developing instruction http://tc.eserver.org/31268.html http://tc.eserver.org/31268.html QAS is a small company with only 400 employees. However, this small postal software company well understands the power and value of knowledge and empowering employees with the right information and tools to excel in their day-to-day jobs. How? Rather than accepting their small size and stature as an impediment to intranet success, QAS has evolved their intranet from good to great. http://tc.eserver.org/31269.html http://tc.eserver.org/31269.html If the pace of change in social media and collaborative working continues, intranets as we know them will rapidly become a thing of the past. At the same time, those responsible for corporate intranets need to be sure that past and present investment in the platform pays off. What should they do? http://tc.eserver.org/31270.html http://tc.eserver.org/31270.html Every year needs its hype topic of choice. In the field of intranets and portals for 2007, the fashion has now been decided: It's the 3-D intranet—some version of Second Life (the virtual digital environment gaining popularity among large corporations) designed for employees. IBM is investing large sums of money looking into what a 3-D intranet might be like, and intranet managers and directors in large organizations are gaining interest in this new possibility. http://tc.eserver.org/31271.html http://tc.eserver.org/31271.html When Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwarz needs to communicate with the world, he doesn’t necessarily call a press conference, issue a press release, or even convene a webinar or videoconference. He blogs. His online diary gives him an unfiltered channel leading to the employees, customers, analysts and resellers who represent the first wave of perception formation regarding important company products and service initiatives. Sun is leading a transformation of the communication profession, as the Web transitions from an information repository to a platform of collaboration and community building. http://tc.eserver.org/31272.html http://tc.eserver.org/31272.html Firms wrestling with unstructured data such as emails and spreadsheets don't see enterprise content management as the answer to their problems. http://tc.eserver.org/31274.html http://tc.eserver.org/31274.html Digital copy is underappreciated, underrated and - astonishingly - still the poor cousin of the web relaunch process. http://tc.eserver.org/31276.html http://tc.eserver.org/31276.html Meet Scott, age 28, with a Dunkin' Donuts cup costume, a web site, a MySpace page and an archive of compelling brand content that, by the way, happens to rank number four in a Google search for the brand name. Scott is among the legions of brand enthusiasts who are knocking down the walls of the traditional "us versus them" brand relationship, demanding to be let in and be a part of the brand experience. http://tc.eserver.org/31278.html http://tc.eserver.org/31278.html Before you jump up and down about social media and the wonderfully transparent world it is creating, consider the consequences. There’s just no way to prevent those outside your walls from looking in. Leaky information, errant e-mails and inappropriate instant messages now have the capacity to become very, very public. If there's one lesson that communicators need to take away from the new social media, it's how to operate in a world of transparency. http://tc.eserver.org/31208.html http://tc.eserver.org/31208.html The “why” of Ruby on Rails comes down to productivity, says Michael Slater. Web applications that share three characteristics—they’re database-driven, they’re new, and they have needs not well met by a typical CMS—can be built much more quickly with Ruby on Rails than with PHP, .NET, or Java, once the investment required to learn Rails has been made. Does your web app fall within the RoR “sweet spot?” http://tc.eserver.org/31211.html http://tc.eserver.org/31211.html The “how” of Ruby on Rails: Hivelogic’s Dan Benjamin prepares non-Rails developers, designers, and other creative professionals for their first foray into Rails. Learn what Ruby on Rails is (and isn’t), and where it fits into the spectrum of web development and design. See through the myths surrounding this powerful young platform, and learn how to approach working with it. http://tc.eserver.org/31220.html http://tc.eserver.org/31220.html Corporate photography was once the realm of adults only. Just a few years ago, it was surprising to see a picture of anybody under 40 years old in an annual report or capabilities brochure, much less someone under the age of 12. But nowadays, photos of children are showing up more and more often in all kinds of corporate publications, and as you might suspect, photographing children requires a totally different approach than shooting the CEO. http://tc.eserver.org/31232.html http://tc.eserver.org/31232.html It sees you when you’re sleeping. It knows if you’re awake. 'It' is the world, and it knows if your company has been naughty or nice. The digital revolution has put a photographic device, be it a camera or camera-phone, in the hands of virtually everybody everywhere—so you can be sure someone besides Santa is constantly watching your company’s behavior. For that and other good reasons, corporate photography is looking very green this season. http://tc.eserver.org/31233.html http://tc.eserver.org/31233.html Despite blogs’ potential for creating valuable online communities, many communicators are still uneasy with the blog format. Communicators worry about the possibility of readers posting negative comments and feedback on the company blog. Angry customers leaving stories of poor experiences for all to see or employees submitting bitter public complaints are nightmare scenarios for most communicators. So how should we respond to negative feedback on corporate blogs? The process begins with shifting our perspective to see the risks as opportunities. http://tc.eserver.org/31235.html http://tc.eserver.org/31235.html As business communicators, our goal is typically to influence opinion or change behavior in order to achieve business objectives. To accomplish this, we must get people to interact with our message. A page of 12-point Times New Roman text is seldom compelling, so what you are left with to persuade people to read your publication is graphic design. http://tc.eserver.org/31238.html http://tc.eserver.org/31238.html The online world is abuzz with talk about social networking. With companies such as Facebook seemingly constantly in the news, 2007 has been the year that social networking took its first adolescent steps beyond being the sole purview of, well, adolescents, and started to become a tool that is getting noticed in the business world. But with all the hype out there about online social networking, how can organizations begin to better understand the tangible business impact of their forays into this area? http://tc.eserver.org/31239.html http://tc.eserver.org/31239.html Let's face it: These are tough times to be a professional communicator. Our audiences have taken the reins of what is indisputably the dominating mass communication medium of our era: the Internet. Web 2.0, characterized by social media applications for peer-to-peer collaboration such as YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia is challenging all of our basic assumptions as communication practitioners. The astonishing rise of social networking structures and content is in effect challenging the very existence of the traditional corporate communication function. http://tc.eserver.org/31240.html http://tc.eserver.org/31240.html Social media measurement sounds like an inherently good idea. Management likes numbers, and if we can measure it, we can manage it. So, all this new online activity should be easier to understand, once we measure it. There's only one problem: What does social media measurement mean? Like social media itself, it is an evolving term with multiple definitions based on the needs of different constituencies. http://tc.eserver.org/31241.html http://tc.eserver.org/31241.html Anyone can relate the facts of an event, just like anyone can hold a camera up to a scene and document it. But bare facts and badly composed images make for poor communication. It takes skill and talent to write a good story, one that will inform and entertain. The same is true for photography. Images have always been storytellers. A good image can relay large amounts of data in a format that is pleasing and quickly absorbed by the viewer. That makes photos potentially more influential than a massive amount of words. http://tc.eserver.org/31187.html http://tc.eserver.org/31187.html Defining a site is one of the more complicated procedures in Dreamweaver, so do not attempt this process unless you have some time, patience, and knowledge of how to transfer files to your server space. http://tc.eserver.org/31191.html http://tc.eserver.org/31191.html This study investigated the effect of website typeface appropriateness on the perception of the site's company. Results indicate that typefaces that are high in appropriateness should be used for websites. Neutral and low appropriate typefaces significantly decreased the perception of the company as judged by professionalism, believability, trust, and intent to act on the site. http://tc.eserver.org/31192.html http://tc.eserver.org/31192.html This study investigated the legibility of onscreen typefaces and the influence of individual character features on correct identification. Specific attributes of alphanumeric characters and symbols shown to be the least legible were measured and analyzed using a statistical method called classification tree analysis. Results from this analysis for the letter "e" and the number zero are discussed. http://tc.eserver.org/31193.html http://tc.eserver.org/31193.html A list of common mistakes with e-commerce shopping cart design were identified in a previous issue of Usability News. This article revisits that list and reviews how 500 of the top Internet retail sites of today implemented their shopping cart design. http://tc.eserver.org/31195.html http://tc.eserver.org/31195.html This study investigated the effect that a font has on the reader's perception of an email. Based on a previous study by Shaikh, Chaparro, and Fox (2006), a sample email message was presented in three fonts (Calibri, Comic Sans, and Gigi). The three chosen fonts represented a high, medium, and low level of congruency for email messages. The least congruent typeface (Gigi) resulted in different perceptions of the email document and its author. However, no significant differences were found between the moderately and highly congruent fonts. http://tc.eserver.org/31197.html http://tc.eserver.org/31197.html This study evaluated the usability of three websites for Spanish-English Dual Language K-8 schools. Twelve participants (6 parents, 6 teachers) reviewed and performed tasks on the three public school websites. Site usability was determined through both objective and subjective measures, including task completion time, first-click, total number of pages visited, task success, perceived task difficulty, user satisfaction, and overall ranked preference. Results indicated that one site was preferred more than the others by both user groups and resulted in more efficient search behavior. Clear navigation, link terminology, and proper use of both languages were found to be critical factors contributing to the sites’ usability. http://tc.eserver.org/31202.html http://tc.eserver.org/31202.html As a company recognized by a number of publications and organizations for its ongoing commitment to a diverse workforce, Wachovia promotes diversity as a business imperative critical to the company's success. On Wachovia's web properties, the company tries to appeal to diverse segments through images of people of different races, ethnicities, and ages, reflecting the company's customer base. However, a recent usability test revealed that working off such demographics alone is not enough to translate diversity, and that building personas is the key to creating, not just representation, but relevancy. http://tc.eserver.org/31206.html http://tc.eserver.org/31206.html The InDesigner video podcast showcases the power of InDesign to automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity and build unprecedented flexibility into the design process. The InDesigner is dedicated to empowering designers to understand and embrace concepts and features that will transform how they work and allow them to both meet their deadlines and satisfy their creative passion. http://tc.eserver.org/31207.html http://tc.eserver.org/31207.html The Body of Knowledge effort is currently being led by a team of experienced industry and academic STC members. This spring, you will be invited to look at the initial outline of a hierarchy of domains, skills, and knowledge levels. This BoK is yours to develop; the start-up team is simply trying to put together a straw site to start the collaborative effort. http://tc.eserver.org/31171.html http://tc.eserver.org/31171.html In this podcast, Marlene Martineau of New Dawn Technologies explains why they adopted DITA, how they adopted it, the benefits they're experiencing, and the reasons why she'll never go back. http://tc.eserver.org/31158.html http://tc.eserver.org/31158.html I went to the Content Management Strategies/DITA North America 2008 conference (put on by CIDM), which took place in Santa Clara last week. While I went to support our co-founder's speech on DocBook versus DITA, I also used this opportunity to catch up with software vendors and single-source users. Here's my top #10 take-away list. http://tc.eserver.org/31159.html http://tc.eserver.org/31159.html Thanks to my Google News Alert service, I recently discovered some on-demand XML Editors supporing DITA. While Salesforce democratized software on-demand in the CRM market, I am still perplexed on the future of on-demand pure play software. So let's see first what makes on-demand software, also known as Saas (Software as a Service), so attractive nowadays. I see five compelling reasons. http://tc.eserver.org/31168.html http://tc.eserver.org/31168.html I have recently converted some user documents from MS Word to XML for a medical device company with the intent that they would be looking at authoring their future end-user documentation (printed, embedded, and online) in XML. I want to share with you some of the triumphs and challenges we had met along the way. http://tc.eserver.org/31156.html http://tc.eserver.org/31156.html DocBook and DITA both have their places. They're both excellent for single sourcing. DocBook is better for what I call monolithic single sourcing, while DITA is better suited for discrete single sourcing. http://tc.eserver.org/31157.html http://tc.eserver.org/31157.html If you follow the latest trends or have been to a conference recently, you may find the idea of choosing an XML schema puzzling. Isn't the question really, 'How should I customize DITA to do what I want'? While there are many good reasons to choose DITA, it's not the only schema in town. http://tc.eserver.org/31141.html http://tc.eserver.org/31141.html In all companies, the requirements of an editorial system are worked out individually from the analysis of existing functioning and the definition of editorial and publication processes required in the future. The first important criteria for analysis are change frequencies and degree of reuse of the published information. The description of the information types as well as translation sequences constitute another starting point for the definition of a modular work process (single-source principle) and publication options (cross-media publishing). http://tc.eserver.org/31149.html http://tc.eserver.org/31149.html Wer kennt das Problem nicht? Aus einem riesigen Dokument wurde ein PDF erzeugt. Nun muss es auch noch für den Druck aufbereitet werden. Dafür fehlen aber die Druck- und Schnittmarken. Acrobat 7 hilft hier aus der Patsche. http://tc.eserver.org/31151.html http://tc.eserver.org/31151.html Mit dieser Technik steht Ihnen eine einfache Methode zur Verfügung, Webseiten oder einzelne Bereiche eines Webs downzuloaden und als PDF zu speichern. http://tc.eserver.org/31132.html http://tc.eserver.org/31132.html This free 35-page guide outlines seven challenges every writer and copywriter faces when writing for the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/31133.html http://tc.eserver.org/31133.html InDesign is Adobe's replacement for the aging PageMaker application. In many ways, InDesign is very similar to PageMaker, but there are differences that can throw an experienced PageMaker user for a loop (albeit briefly). In this tutorial you will set up a simple layout and master page. http://tc.eserver.org/31134.html http://tc.eserver.org/31134.html In this tutorial, we will create a postcard announcing a fictitious exhibit (or a real one if you have one coming up:) using InDesign. This tutorial was originally written for the InDesign Workshop. http://tc.eserver.org/31135.html http://tc.eserver.org/31135.html This tutorial is a companion to 0002, and was part of the InDesign Workshop. We will create a companion poster announcing the same exhibition. http://tc.eserver.org/31136.html http://tc.eserver.org/31136.html In this tutorial, we are going to create a simple layout for an existing text document. http://tc.eserver.org/31137.html http://tc.eserver.org/31137.html This is one in a series which will take you through the act of capturing, editing, and exporting a video using Apple iMovie. http://tc.eserver.org/31138.html http://tc.eserver.org/31138.html Once you have successfully captured your video clips, you will want to edit and arrange them to create you movie. It is very rare to flawlessly capture exactly what you need, with the exact in and out points that you want. You will need to trim unwanted frames and footage from your clips. http://tc.eserver.org/31139.html http://tc.eserver.org/31139.html You have this great project that you've just finished, and you need to bring it into another program, display it on your web site, or turn it in on CD or DVD. To do this, you will need to export your movie. iMovie has several 'built-in' configurations that take much of the guesswork out of compressing your video for optimal playback on one of those media types. I often find, however, that the standard choices are not quite what I want or need. This is when the Expert options come into play. http://tc.eserver.org/31124.html http://tc.eserver.org/31124.html I have seen a couple of blog postings lately that underscore the statement that DITA is not for everyone or for every situation. http://tc.eserver.org/31126.html http://tc.eserver.org/31126.html Just because a website looks good, doesn't mean that it's easy to use. http://tc.eserver.org/31127.html http://tc.eserver.org/31127.html We can't force people to look at the work we do, but if we want to make them happy, we need to provide them with the information they need in a manner that makes it easy for the top-down mechanisms to work efficiently. It's our job to help them observe, rather than just see. http://tc.eserver.org/31128.html http://tc.eserver.org/31128.html What bugs me is not the results of the major search engines, but the results of internal web site searches. http://tc.eserver.org/31129.html http://tc.eserver.org/31129.html Give the reader the ability to quickly peruse the information presented and extract the information they need. For example, if there is a lot of information, and the reader is required to scroll the screen to see content 'below the fold', an overview would probably be a very good idea. Contrariwise, if the article is short, and can be quickly scanned (especially if you can do so without scrolling the page), providing an overview might be counterproductive. http://tc.eserver.org/31104.html http://tc.eserver.org/31104.html Any programming problem can be solved in multiple right ways. This series looks at four approaches for creating an Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) weather badge, a small reusable widget that's easily embedded on any Web page. This first article lays the foundation and examines the first approach--walking the DOM tree. http://tc.eserver.org/31096.html http://tc.eserver.org/31096.html Use this study guide to learn how to crop and size graphics in several different applications. Cropping is not particularly problematic, but sizing is. http://tc.eserver.org/31097.html http://tc.eserver.org/31097.html Tables make information easy to find and understand and are often used for illustrating comparisons among similar data. A table usually consists of a heading row and one or more body rows and may also contain a title. http://tc.eserver.org/31101.html http://tc.eserver.org/31101.html When designing interfaces for browsing data-driven sites, creating navigation elements that are also visualization tools helps the user make better decisions. Wilson Miner demonstrates three techniques for incorporating data visualization into standards-based navigation patterns. http://tc.eserver.org/31102.html http://tc.eserver.org/31102.html It is now possible to replicate Google Maps' functionality with open source software and produce high-quality mapping applications tailored to your design goals. Paul Smith shows how. http://tc.eserver.org/31103.html http://tc.eserver.org/31103.html One strong suit of Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) is presenting data from the server to users in a dynamic fashion. Discover several techniques that use Ajax for dynamic data display using tables, tabs, and gliders. http://tc.eserver.org/31077.html http://tc.eserver.org/31077.html The key to efficient and effective user support is an intranet site that supports employees in performing their tasks. However, most intranet sites offer an overload of information that users often must interpret on their own. Van Mansom outlines a useful approach to creating corporate intranet sites. http://tc.eserver.org/31079.html http://tc.eserver.org/31079.html To gain a competitive edge--or even survive--in a world gone flat, a company must assert a level of uniqueness. Companies creating global Web sites can use competitive analysis and landscape analysis to analyze the market; Lee-Kim details how to add cultural analysis to this mix. http://tc.eserver.org/31092.html http://tc.eserver.org/31092.html What is the biggest problem I face almost every time a client hires me to do something about a web project going awry? They don't know a thing about their users. They don't have a clue, whatsoever. Unbelievable but true! http://tc.eserver.org/31093.html http://tc.eserver.org/31093.html Some failure allows complex organizations to learn and grow; others can be catastrophic. In Part 2 of his series, Peter Jones explores the factors of user experience role, the timing dynamics of large projects, and several alternatives to the framing of UX roles and organizations today. http://tc.eserver.org/31094.html http://tc.eserver.org/31094.html Jamie Owen explores how we can best utilize cues in our work by understanding how memory, cognitive psychology, and multimedia research affect how information is encoded and retrieved. http://tc.eserver.org/31071.html http://tc.eserver.org/31071.html Findability is to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as 'web standards' is to 'table layouts.' In a web whose vastness exceeds comprehension, sites with findable content win. The good news is that everyone on your team can help make your site findable. http://tc.eserver.org/31072.html http://tc.eserver.org/31072.html You load a new web service, eager to dive in and start engaging, and what's the first thing that greets you? A sign-up form. We can do better, says Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. Via a technique of "gradual engagment," we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them (or sending them to a competitor's site) by forcing them to fill out a sign-up form first. http://tc.eserver.org/31073.html http://tc.eserver.org/31073.html When you design or modify Web sites to allow access to people with disabilities, you make the Web accessible. New Web sites and applications, however, are introducing new problems and barriers. There are complex graphics and multimedia applications that assistive technology simply has not solved. One solution to these new problems is to put accessibility in the hands of the Web developer and content author. Creating a Web site that is accessible by people with disabilities is relatively easy as long as the Web developer and author follow some basic guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/31064.html http://tc.eserver.org/31064.html The prevalence of online banners and text ads have made all but the most annoying online ads nearly transparent to online users. To stand out from the crowd, some marketers are turning to a simple, relevant and transparent advertising format: the text link. http://tc.eserver.org/31065.html http://tc.eserver.org/31065.html 98 percent of Internet shoppers leave ecommerce sites without buying. That is why Internet-savvy marketers are starting to use retargeting technology to pursuing customers who have left their website and recapture lost sales. http://tc.eserver.org/31066.html http://tc.eserver.org/31066.html The introduction of Google's 'Universal Search' has had a large-scale negative impact on the natural results of many online retailers and vertical market websites. http://tc.eserver.org/31067.html http://tc.eserver.org/31067.html When Tim O'Reilly coined the term Web 2.0 in 2004, the Internet was still 'a place for people to go.' Now, it's what he imagined: a place where people are. It has become integrated into our daily lives, where we collaborate with others. It has also become a place where our electronics and appliances collaborate on our behalf. http://tc.eserver.org/31068.html http://tc.eserver.org/31068.html To get the first spot on Google, Yahoo, or MSN, all it used to take was the highest bid. Today, even the experts aren't sure exactly what it's going to take. http://tc.eserver.org/31069.html http://tc.eserver.org/31069.html Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. Basically, focus groups are interviews, but of 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session. http://tc.eserver.org/31048.html http://tc.eserver.org/31048.html Many recent studies on computer-mediated communication (CMC) have addressed the question of orality and literacy. This article examines a relatively recent subgenre of CMC, that of written online sports commentary, that provides us with written CMC that is clearly based on firmly established oral genres, those of radio and television sports commentary. The examples analyzed are from two English, two French, and two Spanish online football (soccer) commentaries. The purpose of the study is to examine oral traits and genre mixing in online football commentaries in the three languages and carryover from the spoken genres of radio and television commentaries to this developing genre, following Ferguson. Special attention is paid to Web page design. The study reveals that form and content of online football commentaries are strongly affected by the style of the online newspaper. http://tc.eserver.org/31052.html http://tc.eserver.org/31052.html Throughout the 1990s the relationship between culture and technology was sharply focused in a debate about whether digital technologies signalled the death or radical displacement of photography. The case for the cultural continuity of photography centred upon a rejection of a strong form of technological determinism. It is now clear that far from being displaced to the margins of culture, there is now more photography than ever. There have also been dramatic developments: mobile phone manufacturers have put more cameras into people's hands then ever before; the photograph as social document and historical witness persists but in changing ways; photographs circulate globally on an unprecedented scale via electronic image banks. It is clear that such changes and developments do involve new technologies. However, rather than being due to the kind of technological determinism debated earlier, this is because photography has come to exist within a new technological environment. In many recent accounts, 'information' and information technology are repeatedly cited as constituting a new and shaping context for photographic practices. http://tc.eserver.org/31054.html http://tc.eserver.org/31054.html Marketing to social media websites such as Digg and del.icio.us has become an integral part of any SEO campiagn - find out what you need to do. http://tc.eserver.org/31055.html http://tc.eserver.org/31055.html Submitting your website to directories is a great way to increase your search engine rankings - get the full lowdown on how to do this. http://tc.eserver.org/31056.html http://tc.eserver.org/31056.html Customisable websites have recently become more and more popular - get the lowdown on when and why you should and shouldn't allow users to change pages on your website. http://tc.eserver.org/31057.html http://tc.eserver.org/31057.html It's important to fully understand the theories of social groups before designing online social networks - find out all you need to know! http://tc.eserver.org/31058.html http://tc.eserver.org/31058.html Discover the accessibility problems caused by AJAX and how it can be used to enhance web accessibility. http://tc.eserver.org/31059.html http://tc.eserver.org/31059.html Web developers often make the same errors as each other when implementing accessibility - find out what these are and how to avoid making these mistakes. http://tc.eserver.org/31060.html http://tc.eserver.org/31060.html Don't let your stylesheet files get out of control - follow these guidelines right from the start and you'll easily be able to manage and update your CSS files.