Post-Implementation - Most Important

You would be forgiven for thinking that the lifespan of the typical usability project ends with final implementation and a product or website's release into the market. In one sense it does - the user-centred design process is over, and presumably the result is an easy-to-use product or site that is already yielding results. All well and good - but sometimes even the best interfaces cannot meet the changing requirements of the typical workplace. In this case, post-implementation user testing can pick up the difficulties that were not picked up first time around. At this point the client may quite rightly be wondering why these problems weren't spotted before deployment. The reason lies in the way in which the user has developed alongside the product. First impressions, whether favourable or not, may turn out to be misleading after an extended period of use.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2000). Design>Content Management>Web Design

Putting Content in Context

Digital asset management (DAM) software stores and organizes images, audio, video and other digital objects, making them easier to find, transform and reuse. And many companies are using DAM to provide a centralized way for employees and partners to locate and manipulate content-a big time-saver for all.

Kalin, Sari. CIO Magazine (2002). Design>Content Management>Usability

A Quiet Revolution in Website Maintenance

We're on the verge of a similar revolution in the area of website maintenance.

Bennaco (2005). Design>Web Design>Content Management

Rapid Web Development: How to Create Flexible Sites Quickly Using Standards Like CSS and XHTML

What do you do when you need to have a Web site done 'yesterday'? This article answers that question, showing you how to create sites quickly and flexibly using Web standards like cascading style sheets (CSS), structural HTML, and server-side includes. It contains examples that demonstrate how rapid Web development not only streamlines the process, but also makes updating easier.

Lewin, James. IBM (2001). Design>Content Management>Web Design

Reusable Information Object Strategy: Definition, Creation Overview, and Guidelines  

Cisco Systems recognizes a need to move from creating and delivering large inflexible training courses, to database driven objects that can be reused, searched, and modified independent of their delivery media. This effort is called the Reusable Information Object Strategy. This strategy defines the standards and process for designing and developing Reusable Information Objects (RIOs) at Cisco Systems.

Cisco Systems (1999). Books>Information Design>Content Management>White Papers

Rich Web Text Editing with Kupu

Kupu is an open source application, written in JavaScript, that implements a flexible, full-featured HTML editor that runs in a web page without any special plugins. Its primary use is as an embedded editor in content management systems (CMS), like Zope or Plone, where it allows users to create their own web pages. Its design is flexible enough so that you can embed it into pretty much any web application without too much difficulty.

Jones, Robert. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Design>Web Design>Content Management>DHTML

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  

Your output requirements will drive many of your decisions when selecting a content-management system. An abbreviated version of the checklist from JoAnn Hackos’s book, Content Management for Dynamic Delivery, follows to aid you in defining your output requirements.

Hackos, JoAnn T. and Tina Hedlund. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

SGML: More than 'Just Do It!'  

The Technical Publications department of DSC Communications Corporation decided to use SGML as a method of information creation, storage, and management; obtained buy-in from management and appropriate personnel; selected and trained a team; created and implemented a project plan for an SGML prototype project.

Green, Carol, Dianne G. High and Jeanne M. Jordan. STC Proceedings (1995). Design>Content Management>SGML

Simple Content Management

DON’T BE FOOLED by the title: this article covers the implementation of a complete, expandable, client-side content management system using REBOL. This system makes it easy for any website operator, regardless of experience, to update site content while keeping markup valid and consistent and ensuring that links stay pertinent. Why another CMS? I’m not a fan of the client-side content management provided by FrontPage or Dreamweaver, and server-based systems rely on server OS and software and are vulnerable to the restrictions of hosting packages. This CMS will work on any desktop system.

Ross-Gill, Christopher. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Content Management>Hosting

Single Source Tools: An Integrated Solution  

Tools are a key component for the success of single sourcing. Tools should be selected to support the information model and development processes. This session reviews the types of single source tools (authoring, XML, content management, output, and dynamic content engines) that are available to you today. The session presentation will review the available tools Note that the tools mentioned in this paper may change by the time of the presentation.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Sourcing: It's About People, Not Just Technology    

Cautions that failing to focus on the people in the organization may diminish the success of a single-sourcing initiative. Covers changes that need to occur in the organization to support a single-sourcing initiative and ways to address issues of change.

Rockley, Ann. Technical Communication Online (2003). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Sourcing: Our First Year  

Single sourcing creates multiple documents from a single content file. Developing single-source content is an efficient way to produce documentation. This topic has stirred considerable interest among technical writers the last few years and more and more departments are adopting the process. The following experiences and advice, based upon our use of FrameMaker and WebWorks Publisher Professional, are meant to assist a documentation department that is about to begin a single-source process or is considering making this transition.

Welch, Erin Beal and Lori Beard. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single-Sourcing with FrameMaker

As a technical writer, you may be exploring single-sourcing--producing multiple document outputs from a single information source--as a possible option for easing document development and production. Although solutions such as databases, SGML, and XML are available that can enable you to reuse information to produce multiple outputs, single-sourcing doesn't have to involve such complex solutions, expenses, and learning curves. Instead, if your single-sourcing needs are relatively simple, you can effectively single-source using a tool that technical writers commonly have available: FrameMaker.

Marques, Michele. TECHWR-L (2002). Design>Content Management>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Smarter Content Publishing: Building A Semantic Website to Increase the Efficiency and Usability of Publishing Systems

The web is not print. The need to create hypertext within pages requires more control over documents. Another is that web pages can also be applications, so access to the 'guts' of the page is needed to insert programming code. And ideally, we would like to separate presentation from content, enabling us to format the content in different ways for different purposes. How can we achieve all this with the efficiency and usability we've come to expect of other publishing tools?

Lombardi, Victor. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Content Management>Web Design

Sources of CMS Uncertainty

Not all aspects of a content management system (CMS) project are equally easy. While some elements can be installed 'out of the box', others have proved difficult to implement. The starting point for improving the management of CMS projects is to recognise the sources of uncertainty, and how these affect project outcomes.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Design>Web Design>Content Management

STC and the W3C  

As technologies like XML, content management software (CMS), and single sourcing continue to seep into technical communication, they bring demands for cost-effective development, faster time-to-market, and automation. Meeting these demands will require standards for coding, language, metadata, and other such elements. The good old days of 'winging it' in documentation are coming to an end.

Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2004). Design>Web Design>Content Management>Standards

Storage and Enterprise Content Management  

Almost one-third of the users reported that more than 40 percent of the storage spending is for unstructured documents and information--I think that percentage will continue to grow annually. Further, AIIM President John Mancini, who prepared the report, found that larger organizations especially are aggressively pursuing consolidation and rationalization of their storage and archiving strategies--but that cost is not the prime motivation behind those activities.

McKellar, Hugh. KMworld (2006). Articles>Content Management>Information Design

Structured Content Management in the Enterprise  

As other areas within organizations begin to consider structured content for the same reasons as technical communication departments, technical communicators have a golden opportunity to assist others in their move toward structured CM.

Rockley, Ann. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design

Structuring Your Documents for Maximum Reuse  

A major topic among information development managers these days is single sourcing--writing information once and using it many times. Structured documents are critical for single sourcing. So, let's explore: what we mean by structuring documents; why structuring is useful; some of the concerns that writers have about structuring documents.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Center for Information-Development Management (2005). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>XML

Tips for Online Content Businesses in 2001

The online content industry has experienced its first real shakeout. Good! It toppled many high-profile online content venues and left others reeling, scrambling, and retrenching -- but it was absolutely necessary. 2001 should be an especially exciting and interesting year for the online content industry. The need for quality online content continues to expand with the Internet's popularity. However, the online content industry doesn't work like traditional media. Also, it has become painfully obvious that you really must have a solid business model to succeed in this field. Time to stop clinging to outdated assumptions about media, and to take a hard look at how online media really works. As food for thought, here are Amy's top tips for online content businesses in 2001.

Gahran, Amy. Contentious (2001). Design>Content Management>Editorials

To Structure or Not to Structure

Behind all the questions about how to model something is a bigger question: do you model it at all? When is it obvious to structure some content, and when do you just throw it into the 'WYSIWYG pile'?

Gadgetopia (2008). Articles>Content Management>Information Design

Transform a Single Source Into Many Designs  

When one layout just isn’t enough, you can easily tag your Adobe® InDesign® document and export the content to an XML file. Different InDesign templates and Adobe GoLive® dynamic Web pages can then import the XML file and repurpose the content. Say goodbye to copy-and-paste and hello to the future of publishing!

Adobe. Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Adobe InDesign

The Two Faces of Intranet Success

There are two fundamental aspects that must be satisfied if an intranet is to succeed: the intranet must meet staff needs; sufficient content and functionality must be created to meet these needs. These are the 'two faces' of the intranet, one looking towards staff and organisational needs, the other at the infrastructure and processes needed to meet it.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Design>Content Management>Intranets

Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects    

The term Learning Object, first popularized by Wayne Hodgins in 1994 when he named the CedMA working group 'Learning Architectures, APIs and Learning Objects,' has become the Holy Grail of content creation and aggregation in the computer-mediated learning field. The terms Learning Objects (LOs) and Reusable Learning Objects are frequently employed in uncritical ways, thereby reducing them to mere slogans. The serious lack of conceptual clarity and reflection is evident in the multitude of definitions and uses of LOs. The objectives of this paper are to assess current definitions of the term Learning Object, to articulate the foundational principles for developing a concept of LOs, and to provide a methodology and broad set of guidelines for creating LOs.

Polsani, Pithamber R. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Articles>Content Management>Instructional Design>Education