COTS: The New Challenge of Information Integration  

Systems engineering is moving away from specially-designed and built systems to integration of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. COTS brings new challenges to technical communicators. In the past, we found all our information in-house, now it comes from many sources. We must change our process from pure development to information integration, and we must be part of the COTS selection process.

Lenk, Donald S. Jr. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Information Design>Software

Create a Slideshow with the Dreamweaver Timeline

The Dreamweaver Timeline uses layers and JavaScript to create animation and interactivity. To create a series of rotating images, prepare each image at the same size in a graphics program first (i.e., Photoshop, Fireworks, ImageReady, etc.). Then insert a layer on the page. This layer will serve as a placeholder for the rotating images.

Berg, Debbie. WebDeb (2001). Design>Web Design>Presentations>Dreamweaver

Creating a Magnetic Sign

An introduction to how to create a magnetic sign for indoor displays.

Hewlett-Packard. Presentations>Document Design>Streaming>Video

Creating a Unified Web Site Design for the School of Technology at Purdue University  

The problem with any poorly designed web site is inconsistency. As a web designer or developer, one must create a web site as a finite, predictable universe with a specific set of standards and design specifications. When visitors go to any given page on a site, they should be able to recognize that they’re in the same site. The main focus of this paper outlines how a unified web site design was created for the School of Technology at Purdue University. In developing unified web sites it is important to have visual hints throughout a given site such as consistent typefaces for specific needs, consistent color palettes, and consistent placement and layout.

Miller, Susan G. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Web Design>Usability

Creating an Indoor Banner

This video will cover professional banner design and layout and choosing the right material for the job.

Hewlett-Packard. Presentations>Document Design>Streaming>Video

Creating an Indoor Print on Rigid Substrate

Covers scanning a photograph, laying out the graphic, printing, mounting, and then a review of components.

Hewlett-Packard. Presentations>Document Design>Streaming>Video

Creating an Outdoor, Durable Event Banner

Takes you through each step needed to create a durable outdoor banner.

Hewlett-Packard. Presentations>Document Design>Marketing

Creating Effective Poster Presentations: An Effective Poster

An effective poster is not just a standard research paper stuck to a board. A poster uses a different, visual grammar. It shows, not tells.

Hess, George, Kathryn Tosney and Leon Liegel. North Carolina State University (2006). Design>Presentations>Posters>Visual Rhetoric

Creating Effective Presentation Slides

The key methods you can employ to create effective presentation slides.

Doumont, Jean-luc. IEEE PCS (2008). Design>Presentations>Usability>Podcasts

Creating More Effective Graphs: Trellis Display  

Trellis display is a framework for visualizing multivariate data. The outcomes collected during an early agricultural experiment on the yields of barley are displayed using Trellis, which in the case study discussed revealed an anomaly in the data which was overlooked during many conventional statistical analyses of these data.

Robbins, Naomi B. STC Proceedings (1999). Presentations>Graphic Design>Charts And Graphs

Cross-Cultural User-Experience Design: What? So What? Now What...  

Applying culture to user-experience design theory and practice.

Marcus, Aaron. University of California Berkeley (2005). Presentations>User Centered Design>User Experience>International

Curriculum Re-design for Web-Based and Distance Learning: The 'Search' for Online Models  

This paper discusses the work in progress at the Illinois Institute of Technology/Program in Technical Communication and Information Design in web-based instruction and distance learning. Part I is a case study of issues involved in the re-positioning of a traditional classroom course in online design to Internet delivery. Part II discusses issues in the design of instructional materials for the web and cognitive principles for designing these materials.

Eiler, Mary Ann, Susan Feinberg and Margaret Murphy. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design>Online

The Dangers of Personalization

Personalization is coming to technical communication, and the results may not be pretty. n offering the individual an opportunity to pick and choose among XML content objects, we risk causing confusion when the organization of the site appears to shift, and familiar landmarks disappear. Critical content may become invisible to the user. The very process of creating preferences, custom options, or an entire personal profile adds a complex distraction that many users may resent, because it takes them away from their original task for so long that they forget what they were doing. Even advanced search mechanisms, which promise to pinpoint the exact information object the user wants, risk baffling users with their own complexity.

Price, Jonathan R. Communication Circle, The (2001). Presentations>Information Design>Personalization

Decision Support Systems for Environmental Management: Web-Based Communication Modules to Enhance Public Participation  

Nature provides important basic functions for society. Expert systems for integrated knowledge management, so-called decision support systems (DSSs), are tools to manage vegetation, air, soil, and water, and to assure functional integrity of ecosystems, e.g. river basins. Over the past decade sustainability has became the accepted norm to manage our life support resources. This concept is based on responsibility to the “Other” and on participatory consensus-forming dialogues leading to stakeholder models; before, the predominant school of thought has been utilitarianism. Scientists, engineers and technical communicators are challenged to develop feasible technologies to facilitate management, for example to supplement DSSs with virtual libraries and web-forums.

Kaempf, Charlotte. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Web Design>Management>Participatory Design

Defining The Control Level When Designing Hypermedia Training  

Before coding any part of a hypermedia computer-based training (CBT) system, designers need to decide how much control their users should have over their individual paths through the system. Designers can choose from three different levels of control within a hypermedia CBT system: complete computer control, complete user control, and adaptive computer control. Each level of control is suited to different types of audiences and system goals. Current research provides some guidelines for designers—showing which types of audiences and system goals are suited to which methods of control.

Weise Moeller, Elizabeth A. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>Information Design>Hypertext

Delivering Customer Satisfaction: Our Experiences with Responding to Customer Feedback  

The success of an organization that publishes product information depends on customer satisfaction. IBM Product Announcement Support representatives share their experiences in achieving very high levels of customer satisfaction. * How we conducted our surveys and feedback sessions: – Actual approaches – Sample surveys and feedback * How we used this feedback to: – Change the content and format of our deliverable dramatically – Offer our customers additional ways to access product information As writers in IBM Product Announcement Support, our mission is to produce high-quality, effective offering information worldwide. Simply put, we publish IBM product announcements on the full range of IBM hardware, software, and services.

Howell Betz, Margaret. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Usability>User Centered Design

Delivering Dynamic Content  

Cisco Systems IOS ITD Documentation group had a requirement to move to the dynamic delivery of documentation to their customers. This meant that the documentation had to be redesigned using a component architecture, moved to XML, and delivered through a personalization engine. This session discusses this process and the results.

Badre, Albert and Sharon Laskowski. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Information Design>XML

Delivering Effective Web-Based Education  

Delivering effective Web-based education is a challenge more communication professionals will face in the near future. While many approaches exist for solving this problem, one expedient solution is videotaping traditional stand-and-deliver classes, compressing the video for streaming off the Web, synchronizing important visual material to key points in the video, and placing everything in a well-designed and easy-to-use Web site.

Gange, Charles and Mary Ellen Coleman. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Designing Bilingual Web Sites  

My paper discusses the specific challenges associated with designing a Chinese-English Web site in Taiwan for both local and English-speaking audiences abroad. My paper seeks to answer this umbrella question: How can we integrate the Chinese and English portions of the site into a single, consistent presentation? Using an example of a Taiwan-based company, I explore how technical communicators working on this bilingual Web site project (1) developed content in English that is suitable both for native English speakers around the world; (2) reconciled different audience responses to visual communication strategies; (3) tackled the technological challenge of a bilingual Web site; and (4) addressed the cultural and political challenges of developing a Web site for diverse audiences.

Chu, Steve W. STC Proceedings (1999). Presentations>Web Design>Regional>China

Designing for Single Source  

“Single source” has come to mean many things to many different people. The basic distinctions are two: (1) distributing the same content in multiple formats and (2) distributing complementary content in the most appropriate medium. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive, i.e., you may have an information strategy that encompasses both ideas. Each methodology has its own advantages, suitability, and requirements. Distributing complementary content in the most appropriate medium requires research and planning, and often results in more effective documentation.

Florsheim, Stewart J. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Information Design>Single Sourcing

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

Designing Web Personalization Features  

Personalization, which allows a web user to choose the content and layout of their own portal web page, is one of the most popular ways of increasing traffic at web sites, and helps to ensure return customers. But to be successful, it must be simple and it must be intuitive. This paper presents common personalization features used by top portals and reviews the design of the interfaces of three top portals: My Excite, My Yahoo and MSN. This paper provides examples of good and bad design techniques used in the portal sites, and gives tips on how to design usable personalization features.

Kravatz, Harris. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Web Design>Personalization

Designing Web Sites to Educate, Induce Action, and Promote Participatory Communication for Decision-Making  

Knowing more about how web site characteristics work to reach non-e-commerce goals can guide web designers working towards some of those goals. Environmental advocacy sites are apt to provide rich examples of how web sites try to educate, change behaviors and values, induce action, and promote participatory decisionmaking. Studying them, then, may help us understand how the characteristics of their web sites work. This paper explores how a particular advocacy group web site, www.seedcoalition.org, educates and induces action in its visitors. The site seems likely to effectively educate and induce action, but could do more to induce deliberation and encourage interpersonal communication and discussion about issues, which might better support the group’s long term goals.

Sehmel, Heather. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Web Design>Education>Participatory Design