Top Banner
Findability: Taming the Information Scavenger Hunt Presented by: Cheryl Landes Tabby Cat Communications Columbia Internet Technologies Sharegroup August 31, 2016
35

Findability cits (8-31-16)

Apr 13, 2017

Download

Technology

calandes
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Page 1: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Findability: Taming the Information

Scavenger HuntPresented by:Cheryl Landes

Tabby Cat Communications

Columbia Internet Technologies SharegroupAugust 31, 2016

Page 2: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Agenda Introduction What is findability? Why is findability important? Problems and challenges Best practices Skills needed Helping to improve findability Summary

Page 3: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Introduction Who am I?

25 years as technical communicator 17 years as technical marketing communicator 25 years indexing technical and non-technical content Education:

Bachelor’s in journalism (public relations) Master’s in Adult Distance Education

Page 4: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Introduction (continued) Wrote Findability chapters for The

Language of Content Strategy and The Language of Technical Communication

Published article about findability in Spring 2015 issue of the ISTC Communicator

Writing book about findability; publication date spring 2017

Page 5: Findability cits (8-31-16)

What is findability?

Findability is the ability to actually discover and retrieve the information you’re seeking.

Page 6: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Why is findability important? You can have the best content in the world,

but if your users can’t find it, it’s worthless. If others provide findable content about your

product or service, but your users can’t find yours, traffic is diverted. This is bad from a marketing perspective.

Page 7: Findability cits (8-31-16)

The Findability Formula

Findability = Navigation + Search

Page 8: Findability cits (8-31-16)

What is navigation? Navigation is how you move around in

content. To navigate, you use:

Buttons Tabs Tables of contents Menus Links Indexes

Page 9: Findability cits (8-31-16)

What is search? Search is the act of looking for specific content

by entering a query in a search engine. Queries consist of keywords, or search terms,

that displays the information the search engine finds.

The search engine displays the results of the query from the most to least relevant.

Page 10: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Problems and Challenges

Page 11: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Navigational control considerations

Is the design for print or online? Are controls intuitive? Do controls follow the familiar UI standards? Do you know to where the controls will lead? Can you return to where you were? Can you retrace your virtual steps, if needed?

Page 12: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Designing for Paper, but Online Blank pages Elements that aren’t live:

Tables of contents Footnotes Indexes

Page 13: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Buttons Are buttons mouse-location dependent? Do buttons disappear on certain devices? Are buttons intuitive?

Page 14: Findability cits (8-31-16)

What does this button do? From Kindle for the PC:

Page 15: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Menus Location of menus Location of help Chapter vs. page location (or topic vs.

subtopic)

Page 16: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Where are the menus and help? Amazon Kindle Reader

for PC Adobe Digital Editions

for PC

Page 17: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Links Footnotes

Links to external articles

Page 18: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Links (continued) Are links meaningful?

Page 19: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Table of Contents Pillars of the Earth

Page 20: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Table of Contents Conversation and

Community

Page 21: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Tables:Always an issue online

Cloud Computing

Page 22: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Tables 500 Low

Glycemic Index Recipes

Page 23: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Table alternatives Image of the table Modularized table Fixed first column, scrolling remainder Cascading list Drill down Link to offsite table

Page 24: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Index MS Style

Guide

Page 25: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Lack of an Index What index?

Page 26: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Search considerations Is the search interface intuitive? Do you really know where you’re searching? Can you get useful, relevant results when you

enter a search term?

Page 27: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Accessibility Are there alternatives for users with

disabilities to consume your content?

Page 28: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Accessibility (continued) Tabs or buttons?

Page 29: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Content clarity Also affects findability If people can’t understand your content, they

won’t find what they need

Page 30: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Best practices for making content findable

Who is your audience? What are your audience’s needs? Which devices are your readers using? What are the interface limitations of the devices? What types of content will your readers want to find?

Page 31: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Best practices for making content findable (continued)

How many terms can you include to help your readers find the same content? (language background, cultural differences)

How will the content be used in the future? Can readers understand the content?

Page 32: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Skills required Interviewing Observation and analysis Organizational skills Usability concepts Content optimization Web design concepts Accessibility

Page 33: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Helping to improve findability Make friends with engineers and developers. Promote findability with marketing as an asset

to increase sales. Continue learning about trends. They’re

constantly changing! Educate, educate, educate!

Page 34: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Summary

Well-designed wayfinding helps you find the content you need, and you’ll remember where to find it when you need it again.

Poorly designed wayfinding hinders your ability to find content, resulting in wasted time and frustration.

Clearly crafted content improves findability. We can be advocates for our users and help improve

findability.

Page 35: Findability cits (8-31-16)

Contact InformationCheryl LandesTabby Cat [email protected]