#26226
Building the Treasure House: Creating Knowledge Bases for the World Wide Web
What is a knowledge base? What are the components necessary to build one?
Massa, Jack A. STC Orange County (1998). Presentations>Documentation>Information Design>Databases
#22466
Defining Information Architecture Deliverables
One of the hottest topics these days in Information Architecture circles is documentation. This is probably partly because the IA's role is so ill defined. Our jobs sit perched between engineering and graphic design: go too far in one direction, we're doing the coding, go to far in the other and we are doing the design. Neither role maximizes the architect's key skills; defining the organizational structure and behavior of the web site or application. An IA is most effective when they leave implementation and final graphic design out of the mix. The documents they create to express this have to be crafted with equal skill and diplomacy.
Wodtke, Christina. SitePoint (2001). Articles>Information Design>Documentation
#18834
Developing an Information Strategy 
The role of the technical communicator has been changing dramatically over the past few years. Gone are the days when hefty user manuals are considered desirable. Technical communicators must now think of ways of building intuitiveness into products to obviate the need for reams and reams of hard copy documentation. This understanding forms the basis for developing an information strategy.
Florsheim, Stewart J. STC Proceedings (1997). Design>Documentation>Information Design>Content Strategy
#31582
This blog discusses documents and information designs “in the wild" - especially those that are exceptionally good or exceptionally bad.
Doc or Die. Resources>Documentation>Information Design>Blogs
#25379
Documenting in N-Dimensional Space
As technical communicators, we are being challenged with how to structure information in a multiple dimensional space made possible with Web technology.
Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2005). Articles>Documentation>Information Design
#21657
The issue of documenting schemas—or any machine readable language—goes beyond simple additions of comments. Thereal challengeistocreateschemasthat arereadablebothdirectlybylookingat their sourcecodeandbydocumentation extraction tools.
van der Vlist, Eric. O'Reilly and Associates (2001). Articles>Information Design>XML>Documentation
#26733
Enterprise Agility: SOX and Enterprise Information Integration
The intent of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) can be characterized as risk reduction: reduce errors, inhibit fraud, and provide shareholders with transparent equal-access to material knowledge. But implementation is principally procedural controls and documentation, under threat of penalty. The vague parts of SOX are where the real leverage lies: principles of intent, and corporate transparency.
Dove, Rick. Paradigm Shift International (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Documentation
#29375
Exploring Information Design and Development
Known to write a script or two to automate repetitive tasks like help builds, she also likes to write posts about XML-based information models like Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). She often experiments with online help technology, enjoys writing blog entries, and wants to find new ways to use communication to help people understand technical solutions to complex problems.
Gentle, Anne. BMC Software (2007). Resources>Information Design>Documentation>Blogs
#19057
Technical communicators have become increasingly interested in how to 'open up' the documentation process - to encourage workers to participate in developing documentation that closely fits their needs. This goal has led technical communicators to engage in usability testing, user-centered design approaches, and, more recently, open source documentation. Although these approaches have all had some success, there are other ways to encourage the participatory citizenship that is implied in these approaches. One way is through an open systems approach in which workers can consensually modify a given system and add their own contributions to the system.
Spinuzzi, Clay. ACM SIGDOC (2002). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>Open Source
#19126
How the Process and Organization Can Help or Hinder Adding Value 
Do better information products result when technical communicators are well integrated into product development teams?
Pieratti, Denise D. Technical Communication Online (1995). Design>Documentation>Information Design>Usability
#13271
An Information Make-Over for Performance Centered Design
Technical communicators have long harbored a secret that we are reluctant to admit to outsiders: Users don’t like reading manuals. They do it only as a last resort. Even online help systems, which we originally hoped would be easier to use, have not met with great enthusiasm among users. It’s an all-too-common dilemma – there is a lot of information that could be explained, but users struggle along as best they can without it. Part of the problem has always been that users are reluctant to leave their work to seek information -- and rightly so. They have work to do and deadlines to meet. Even if your manual or online help contains a wealth of useful information, it takes them away from their work and interrupts their train of thought. If they do try to use it, the help window typically overlays the interface and adds its own set of navigation, resizing, and searching issues.
Battle, Lisa H. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Documentation>Information Design
#19781
Information Planning for Successful Online Documentation
Creating an information plan should be the first phase of any publication development life cycle, whether hard copy or online. The plan is a tool for reporting the results of your research about your audience, their tasks, the market, and the product. The plan presents the basic organization and content of the publications you intend to build, effectively directing the documentation team to produce a publication with very specific goals in mind.
Stevens, Dawn M. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Information Design>Management>Documentation
#28941
Documentation isn't the most fun part of design and IA, but does it have to be the most painful? Samantha Bailey looks at a tool that may help.
Bailey, Samantha. Boxes and Arrows. Articles>Documentation>Information Design
#29444
A Millennial Paradigm for Documentation: the Scroll!
Although some zealots have proposed eliminating printed information entirely in favor of online help systems, Adobe Acrobat files, and even e-books, discarding printed books may prove less effective than simply modernizing them. Scrolls are the logical successors to books.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Documentation>Information Design
#30285
Question and Answer Method of Generating Manuals
Several Texas Instruments writing groups are using a new manual publication method that emphasizes more customer interaction early in the manual development process. This emphasis brings project teams and customers together to accurately define their expectations for the documentation. Writers chunk information as they create the manuals, which allows reviewers to look at the small pieces one at a time and to focus only on those chunks containing information pertinent to their particular expertise. This method defines manual parameters early in the process, which simplifies usability testing.
Lang, Darice. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Information Design
#10264
Retrieving Product Documentation Online
As our high-technology clients become increasingly knowledgeable of the power of electronic media, we are confronted with questions on how the Internet and intranets can be used to deliver technical documents online. For example, one of our clients, a large international firm whose high-technology products are currently supported by printed literature, wants to be able to deliver their product documentation electronically, on customer demand. Their customers, typically professionals working in a fast-paced technical environment, need quick and easy access to appropriate technical information to configure our client's products.
In this article, we discuss how we came to answer our client's question: 'How can we make it easier for our customers to retrieve technical documents from our electronic library?' As we discuss below, we decided that searching online libraries could be facilitated by making the organization of the library conceptually apparent.
Racine, Sam J. and Irving B. Crandall. Technical Communication Online (2001). Design>Information Design>Documentation
#28185
Structured Authoring and XML: Part One
Implementing structured authoring with XML allows organizations to create better content. The addition of hierarchy and metadata to content improves reuse and content management. These benefits, however, must be weighed against the time and money required to implement a structured authoring approach. The business case is compelling for larger writing organizations; they will be the first to adopt structured authoring. Over time, improvements in available tools will reduce the cost of implementing structured authoring and make it affordable for smaller organizations.
O'Keefe, Sarah S. Carolina Communique (2003). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>XML
#28177
Structured Authoring and XML: Part Three
Not every content-creation group will benefit from structured authoring and XML. Sometimes, the expense of implementation outweighs the benefits realized, especially in smaller groups with less total page count.
O'Keefe, Sarah S. Carolina Communique (2004). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>XML
#28186
Structured Authoring and XML: Part Two
In a structured authoring environment, authors create documents by assembling elements and text in an order permitted by the structure definition document. You might think of structured authoring as being similar to template-based authoring with a strict template. Authors do not assign formatting; the formatting is automatically assigned based on the structure of the document. Formatting may differ for different output media.
O'Keefe, Sarah S. Carolina Communique (2003). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>XML
#14559
Many teams are still laboring to transform poorly organized manuals into online help. But the biggest cllallege you face going from paper to online is not interface, but structure The better your structure, the easier your users will navigate.
Price, Jonathan R. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Documentation>Information Design
#23216
Visual Vocabulary Three Years Later: An Interview with Jesse James Garrett
This interview focuses on Jesse James Garret's Visual Vocabulary, a site architecture documentation standard.
Brown, Dan. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Documentation>Information Design>Web Design
#30622
Write Once, Use Many: Why and How We Make Product Information Modular
Faced with growing demand from customers for specific courses, addressing only their needs, in very short time-frames, we had to re-examine the way we worked. Patching together one-shot customized coursework was labor-intensive for a non-homogeneous and unsatisfactory result. Each new customer request required repetition of the same amount of effort. With reduced turnaround time and dwindling human resources, a solution had to be found.
McClelland, Patricia J. and Alison Bourdel. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>User Centered Design
#21709
XML provides a robust, non-proprietary, and verifiable file format for the storage and transmission of text and data both on and off the Web. XML removes the complexity of SGML, making it easier to define your own document types, and to write programs to handle them.
Bokil, Manoj. STC India (2003). Articles>Documentation>Information Design>XML
#13946
"Yes, But Does it Scale?": Practical Considerations for Database-Driven Information Systems
This paper explores the process of designing and implementing a database-driven system of online documentation, and putting it live on the web for customers to use. Using real-life examples, it discusses practical considerations for balancing performance, scalability, and reliability.
Russell, John. ACM SIGDOC (2001). Presentations>Information Design>Documentation
#32096
Structured Writing, Structured Documentation: What and Why?
A brief comparison of two often-confused concepts.
West, Mike. MBWest.com (2007). Articles>Documentation>Information Design
