#19901
Achieving Success with Intranet-Based Online Documentation 
To key to achieving a successful online documentation implementation on the intranet is to understand that the resulting system is indeed a 'system.' The need for well-written, formatted and structured documents is necessary but the interactive framework in which those documents exist is equally important. It is crucial to understand the role of each individual involved in the system from Reader to Author and I.T. provider.
Frost, Edward D.J. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Documentation>Intranets>Web Design
#28400
Alignment is another way of creating associations between visual elements, which help users quickly understand the relationships of objects on a page.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#19917
Applying Object-Oriented Design Concepts to Web Publishing
This is a story of how one internal project at Sun Microsystems migrated printed user and reference documentation to an internal Web site. The principle architect of this site discusses how she applied object-oriented design concepts to the Web architecture to accommodate many learning styles simultaneously. As important as the successes of this project are its failures, which offer some insight into when and how to use the World Wide Web as a communication vehicle in your overall communication strategy.
Hoft, Nancy L. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Documentation>Web Design
#28228
Applying Web 2.0 Technologies to Technical Documentation
This article is based on my presentation at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators' annual conference in October, 2006. Every now and then, there is a change in the value of what technical authors deliver. These are moments when organisations pay attention to technical documentation. This is because they recognise that these changes mean they can create something that will be of real value to the business and to their customers. In recent years, there have been three "waves of interestingness". The first wave was the introduction of Windows Help (WinHelp). The second major wave was the introduction of the Internet and intranets. This was a time when organisations looked at how they could transfer large amounts of information from paper to online. They were faced with issues such as how users could access and understand all this information easily - issues that technical communicators deal with on a day-to-day basis. I believe we're just about to approach the new wave, which we have called "Tech Writing 2.0".
Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2006). Articles>Web Design>Documentation>Technical Writing
#28397
Attention mapping is a tool to help you start to plan a visual layout around realistic communication between user and site. It can also be a helpful analysis tool, helping you work out what's wrong about a layout.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design>Usability
#27932
You can't always count on having a professional designer around to resize and position your images for you, but you'd rather your page layout didn't look like it was created by orangutans. Harvey Kane builds a script that makes your life easier.
Kane, Harvey. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
#27930
Background Positioning vs. Centered Elements
When the browser is told to center a background image within that container, it has to decide where the actual center lies. In the case of an odd total pixel width, the browser must select one side or the other of the central odd pixel as the "center" of the container.
Bergevin, Holly and John Gallant. Position is Everything (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
#20287
Building the Treasure House: Creating Knowledge Bases on the World-Wide Web
Web knowledge bases offer an excellent platform for delivering technical documentation and customer support information. They also represent an area of great opportunity for technical communicators to expand their skills, satisfy their customers, and create value for their employers or clients. This session explores the components of a web knowledge base and the tasks involved in planning and building one.
Massa, Jack A. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Web Design
#29535
Communicating Design: Web Design Documentation
An overview of web design methods, including a survey of questions one should ask during the process.
Brown, Dan. SlideShare (2006). Presentations>Web Design>Documentation
#27658
Constructing a One-Stop "Answer Station" Website for Software Users
The web allows us to easily provide updated documentation to our users, but why stop there? There is more to making users successful quickly than just providing documentation. By creating a complete 'Answer Station' that is accessible from the application or product, we can not only direct users to that updated documentation, but we can also provide information about technical support, consulting, training, sales, etc. This article discusses writing a proposal for an Answer Station, determining content, working with other departments to gather information, designing the site, making that design work with an existing corporate website, dealing with tool issues, and finally, going live.
Bleiel, Nicoletta A. and Beth A. Williams. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Help
#28399
'Containment' is the effect where one or more elements is shown as part of a group or category, through a visual mechanism.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#28795
The Convergence of Web 2.0 with Help Documentation
This podcast talks about the convergence of web 2.0 with help documentation. It mentions examples of Web 2.0 sites, such as Flickr, Payscale, and Digg, and what help files need to incorporate these same Web 2.0 features.
Johnson, Tom H. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Design>Web Design>Documentation>Podcasts
#21564
Designing a Help System for a Web Site
When I worked for a large insurance company, my team as tasked with re-designing the customer service area for a external Web site that supports annuities and mutual fund customers. I proposed redesigning the entire site including an actual help system (like with ones you can create with RoboHelp) to reduce customer service support calls. I was really surprised that everyone thought this was such a novel idea -- I thought it made perfect sense. Then, it hit me -- you don't see a lot of help systems for Web sites.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (1999). Design>Web Design>Documentation
#13105
Designing for the Web: Special Considerations for Safety Information
Manufacturers are currently grappling with determining whether they should put safety information on the Web and if they do how it should be presented. Technical communicators, Web content developers, and Web designers will ultimately be responsible for the presentation of Web-based safety information. This article discusses special considerations that should be given the formatting (HTML, PDF, etc.), design, (font, size, and color), and location of safety information on the Web. Additionally, areas for future research on the issue of Web-based safety information are identified.
Tallman, Lisa A. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Web Design>Documentation
#28433
Grouping similar elements helps the brain quickly decode a page layout. Proximity, Alignment, Containment, Rhythm and Styling are all tools that help indicate grouping.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2005). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#28336
Most users spend a considerable amount of time scanning rather than reading information on Web sites. Well-designed headings help to facilitate both scanning and reading written material. Designers should strive to use unique and descriptive headings, and to use as many headings as necessary to enable users to find what they are looking for--it is usually better to use more rather than fewer headings. Headings should be used in their appropriate HTML order, and it is generally a good idea not to skip heading levels.
Usability.gov (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#28448
HTML tables should only be used to display data in tabular form. This tutorial explains how to create tables in HTML properly.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design>HTML
#23264
Hypertext for Handling Conceptual Material
Turning 'help' systems and 'browsers' into robust structured-document viewers: the DocBrowser.
Hoffman, Michael. Hypertext Navigation. Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Web Browsers
#30766
Is Your Website Poised to Deal With Its Growth? 
Every webmaster nourishes the dream that his or her website will make it the big way. This is very much human because people carry out any task in ardent hope. What is more human out here is that earthy fellows like us base our aspirations more on speculation rather than specific set of steps undertaken to bring the dream a bit closer to reality. And this is not all, particularly in case of growth of a site which brings newer problems in the wake of its growth. It cannot be disputed that you can probably get some good web hosting on economy price. But if you expect top of the line service on this price, acknowedge gracefully that your are just asking for the moon. Probably you are not catching up with wisdom that business needs decisive investments.
Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Technical Writing
#19958
Large-Scale HTML Conversion Using a Word Processor
In 2000, the Hitachi Technical Information Department carried out a large-scale documentation project requiring the revision of 47 English manuals (about 15,000 pages) and production of the manuals in both paper and HTML formats. Many projects of this size would normally use more complex software and file formats, such as FrameMaker and SGML. However, most of the English manuals were already in Microsoft Word (hence forth 'Word') format, and we decided to use Word 2000 to convert the manual document files into HTML files directly. The presentation discusses solutions to problems encountered in this HTML conversion project.
Hara, Takayoshi and Mayumi Seitou. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Documentation>Web Design
#28398
The way elements are arranged on screen carries lots of meaning that we interpret subconsciously when decoding web pages.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#28435
Logical Order of Page Components
There is a natural flow to many visual interactions - the flow of a visual dialogue between page your features and your user's private mental commentary.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#28709
Multi-Column Layouts Climb Out of the Box
A project I recently worked on required an elastic layout with two columns of equal height, each with a different background color. As usual, there was no way to tell which column would be taller. I immediately thought of Dan Cederholm's Faux Columns, but I needed an elastic layout. I also looked at the One True Layout, but this seemed buggy and required too much extra markup and too many hacks for my taste.
Pearce, Alan. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
#28331
All Web pages should be structured for ease of comprehension. This includes putting items on the page in an order that reflects their relative importance. Designers should place important items consistently, usually toward the top and center of the page. All items should be appropriately aligned on the pages. It is usually a good idea to ensure that the pages show a moderate amount of white space—too much can require considerable scrolling, while too little may provide a display that looks too 'busy.' It is also important to ensure that page layout does not falsely convey the top or bottom of the page, such that users stop scrolling prematurely.
Usability.gov (2006). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#27927
A site to explain some obtuse CSS bugs in modern browsers, provide demo examples of interesting CSS behaviors, and show how to 'make it work' without using tables for layout purposes.
Bergevin, Holly and John Gallant. Position is Everything. Design>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
