Program by Day
Program by Track
Program Titles
“Wiki Roundtripping? Structured Authoring? How Do They Co-Exist?”
24 Ways to Shut Down The Application and Other Apocryphal Stories
A Comparison of Three Visual Help Authoring Tools
Beyond L10N and G11N—Communicating with Everybody
Breathing Life into your Technical Documents using Adobe AIR and the Technical Communication Suite
Bringing the Video Revolution to Technical Communication
Changing the Rules of the Game for the Benefit of the User
Document Engineering in User Experience Design
Documentation Planning and Library Design in a Web 2.0 World
Extending the Value of Content in Enterprise Systems with Web Content Management
How an Author and Editor Used a Wiki to Write a Book
Living Multiple Lives: The New Technical Communicator
Making XML Technology Accessible
Manage Your Messaging with Machine-Assisted Editing and Large Scale Sentence-level Reuse
Mapping the Entire Global Content Supply Chain
On the Road to Modular Training Content
Once Content is in XML. Now what?
Putting Everything Back Together Again
See Dynamic Publishing in Action!
Taking Our Information Assets to the Next Level
The In.vision DITA Enterprise Suite for Microsoft Word and SharePoint
Understanding and Communicating the Financial Impact of XML and DITA
Understanding Component Content Management
Using Collaborative Tools for Virtual Team Management
Using Task Modeler to Streamline DITA Content Development
What Technical Communicators Need to Know about Flash
Wikis Are Wonderful, or Are They? A Real World Story of Using Wikis For User Information
Writing Reusable Content to Support Content Models
[Workshop] Moving from Unstructured Documents to Structured XML
[Workshop] An Overview of RoboHelp 7
[Workshop] Content Engineering
[Workshop] DITA Authoring and Publishing with XMetaL
[Workshop] Introduction to XSL
[Workshop] Making DITA Work For Your Data
[Workshop] Simplified Technical English
[Workshop] Single Sourcing with the Technical Communication Suite
Session Details
Documentation Planning and Library Design in a Web 2.0 World
Speaker: Nicoletta BleielTime: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM Date: May 7
Track: User Assistance
Experience level: All levels
Room: Dundarave Room
Documentation deliverables have evolved beyond manuals and online help in recent years, and with the emergence of Web 2.0, things are changing faster than ever. Technical communicators have many more options to enhance the user experience, and developing many of them provide the opportunity to work with other departments to find a more holistic approach to content development and delivery. But there is no one-size-fits-all set of solutions. This session will review the types of analysis you need to do to determine which deliverables are right for your project, your customer, and your company.
Other factors that cant be ignored, such as translation needs, staff/time constraints, file size limitations, corporate image and control, and proprietary concerns will also be discussed, including:
- Analyzing the Product - Intended audience; delivery method (desktop, web application, etc.); competitor offerings; software development methodology. The UI as part of the Help system. Product Management expectations.
- Identifying User Wants and Needs—Preferences and expectations for information; work environment; knowledge and experience levels.
- Ascertaining Internal Needs and Opportunities—Working with Training, Support, and Marketing to reduce duplication and provide the user with consistent, useful information. Finding ways to incorporate information from other departments to improve documentation.
- Accessing Deliverable Options what is the optimum mix for the product?—The traditional: online help, manuals, embedded help, job aids, forums, web sites, technical support knowledgebases. Emerging trends: wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, software demonstrations, podcasts, and other collaborative tools. They can supplement and/or enhance the traditional. Or, they may be a better fit for internal knowledge management or marketing use.
- Optimizing the Library—Single-sourcing; best practices for structuring information; continuous publishing.
