Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies STC Webinar. Dec 1, 2011 Tom Johnson • idratherbewriting.com • @tomjohnson
Dec 22, 2015
Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based
HierarchiesSTC Webinar. Dec 1, 2011
Tom Johnson • idratherbewriting.com • @tomjohnson
THE PROBLEM
Where would you find this in a grocery store?
Image from TradeKorea
Next to the coconuts?
Next to the cream?
In canned goods?
In the dessert section?
In the ethnic food aisle?
Topics frequently overlap.
lays eggs • venomous • beaver’s tail • otter feet • duck’s bill
Image from Wikipedia
There isn’t an absolute order to find
Radiolab excerpt
Image from Wikipedia
Each contributes toward the solution
Findability
Search MetadataUser Research Indexes and
GlossariesQuick Reference Guides
Personalization
Interface Text Tags and CategoriesAlternative Modes Level-based Learning
SEARCH
Google works. Why not imitate it?
immediate trust • intuitive to use • users prefer this method
SEO Factors to Rank High on Google
• The number of links pointing to your site
• The authority of the sites linking to you• The text used in the links linking to you• The frequency of the keywords,
especially in the title, first paragraph, and h1, h2, h3 tags
• Your own site’s Pagerank
Problem: Google has armies of authors.
Search Algorithms Differ
• WordPress: Sorts based on date.
• SharePoint: Defined by search scope settings.
• Mediawiki: Results segmented by namespaces.
• Author-it: Change and changing are not the same.
• Flare: Exact matches rank extremely high.
Search fails when users don't know exact terms.
From Donna Spencer’s Practical Guide to Information Architecture
Search fails to help you discover unknown unknowns.
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.” -- Donald Rumsfeld, qtd. by Peter Morville
Youtube video link
METADATA
Digital spaces allow near infinite rearrangements
See David Weinberger’s Everything Is Miscellaneous
You can create navigation filters based on your content’s facets.
Image from gwilmore on Flickr
You can push and pull topics in various arrangements through
metadata.
•“Faceted navigation is arguably the most significant search innovation of the past decade.”
–- Peter Morville, Search Patterns
Two Types of Entry Points
Dynamic Navigation Static Navigation
Example from Sarah Maddox/Matthew Ellison
You can choose different entry points into the content.
Different entry points into the content.
To facilitate multiple arrangements, you have to chunk
your content.
The Alarm Clock Metaphor
Metaphor from Mark Baker’s blog, Every Page Is Page One
First break content into small chunks…
But only if they have meaning alone.
I chunked up my content.
I added metadata.
I inserted metadata into each topic.
I ran the queries based on metadata.
I gave users navigation options.
New problem: Everything is a list
Our tools aren’t capable of the task
Skyscrapers by freevector
INTERFACE TEXT
Principles for Interface Text
•Clarity: Focus efforts on fuzzy words. Is it the right word for the context?
•Position: Group the text close to the action the user will perform.
•Convention: Follow standards for names and locations.
•Error Messages. Make messages informative.
•Brevity: “Too much text discourages reading” (MSDN).
Context-Sensitive Help
No need to leave task at hand • immediate findability • jquery
Problem: Forest vs. Tree View
Forest overview image from Flickr
Tree from alantankengoe Flickr
Problem: UI Text Annoys Advancd Users
Interface text addresses first-time needs, then gets in the way for experienced users.
INDEXES
Indexes
Image from ACJI on Flickr
familiarity • leverages synonyms • effective
Alternative Indexes
Problems with Indexes
•Studies show people prefer to search.
• Indexes are tedious and hard to create.
•You need a HAT to keep it synchronized.
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDES
Quick Reference Guides
minimalist• just enough to get started • users not overwhelmed • simple • 80/20
Problems with Quick Reference Guides
•Solves first-time need only
•Content irrelevant until user gets into interface
•Potentially creates another version of the source
•Layout intensive
PERSONALIZATION
Personalization
Reduces scope of content • speaks directly to user• all relevant content
Problem: Authentication
•System must have a way to identify the user’s role.
•Tough to authenticate users seamlessly.
•Overlapping roles make it difficult to select the correct role for users.
TAGGING
Tags and Categories
Group content in more than one place • web standard • flexible
Problem: A Flat File Structure
ALTERNATIVE LEARNING MODES
Video
Visual learners • interactivity necessary for learning • makes sense
Beginning to End Scenarios
Problems with Videos
•Not easy to search and skim for information.
•Almost impossible to translate.
•Video narration doesn’t appear in searches unless you include a transcript below the video.
•Expensive to create and maintain.
•Requires skills that go beyond the training of most technical writers.
LEVEL-BASED LEARNING
Learn to crawl before you walk
acknowledges cognitive sequence • follows natural learning models
From Kathy Sierra, Creating Passionate Users
Problems with Level-based Organization
•Requires sophisticated planning to leverage content re-use.
• Information isn’t all in one source.
•Assumes your audience has patience to be in a learning mode.
USER RESEARCH
Card Sorting
Photo from Rosenfeld Media on Flickr
Affinity Diagrams
See LDSTech for more details. Photos from LDSTech.
Surface the overall messages
See LDSTech for more details. Photos from LDSTech.
Treejack Method: Where would you go to find information for this
task?
Image from Optimal Workshop
Is Findability “Solvable”?
“Different people see the world too differently for us ever to solve findability. Finding the information you need will always be work. It will always be a skill that people have to learn. We can help, but we cannot solve. Our efforts in the field of findability ought to be focused not on achieving perfect effortless findability (which is unattainable) but at easing the work of finding that the user has to do for themselves.”
-- Mark Baker, Every Page Is Page One
The Problem May Be the Mindset
Pythagoras image from Wikipedia. Stellar image from NASA Jet Labs Database.
Contact Information
Tom JohnsonBlog: Idratherbewriting.com
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @tomjohnson