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Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies

Learn how to organize help content in a more user-friendly way by breaking out of traditional topic-based hierarchies. This webinar will cover strategies for creating effective navigation, using metadata, and implementing context-sensitive help.

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Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies

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  1. Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies STC Webinar. Dec 1, 2011 Tom Johnson • idratherbewriting.com • @tomjohnson

  2. The Problem

  3. Where would you find this in a grocery store? Next to the coconuts? Next to the cream? In canned goods? In the dessert section? In the ethnic food aisle? Image from TradeKorea

  4. Topics frequently overlap. lays eggs • venomous • beaver’s tail • otter feet • duck’s bill Image from Wikipedia

  5. There isn’t an absolute order to find Radiolab excerpt Image from Wikipedia

  6. Each contributes toward the solution

  7. Search

  8. Google works. Why not imitate it? immediate trust • intuitive to use • users prefer this method

  9. 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

  10. Problem: Google has armies of authors.

  11. 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.

  12. Search fails when users don't know exact terms. From Donna Spencer’s Practical Guide to Information Architecture

  13. 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

  14. Youtube video link

  15. Metadata

  16. Digital spaces allow near infinite rearrangements See David Weinberger’s Everything Is Miscellaneous

  17. You can create navigation filters based on your content’s facets. Image from gwilmore on Flickr

  18. You can push and pull topics in various arrangements through metadata.

  19. “Faceted navigation is arguably the most significant search innovation of the past decade.” –- Peter Morville, Search Patterns

  20. Two Types of Entry Points Dynamic Navigation Static Navigation

  21. Example from Sarah Maddox/Matthew Ellison

  22. You can choose different entry points into the content.

  23. Different entry points into the content.

  24. To facilitate multiple arrangements, you have to chunk your content.

  25. The Alarm Clock Metaphor Metaphor from Mark Baker’s blog, Every Page Is Page One

  26. First break content into small chunks…

  27. But only if they have meaning alone.

  28. I chunked up my content.

  29. I added metadata.

  30. I inserted metadata into each topic.

  31. I ran the queries based on metadata.

  32. I gave users navigation options.

  33. New problem: Everything is a list

  34. Our tools aren’t capable of the task Skyscrapers by freevector

  35. Interface text

  36. 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).

  37. Context-Sensitive Help No need to leave task at hand • immediate findability • jquery

  38. Problem: Forest vs. Tree View Forest overview image from Flickr Tree from alantankengoeFlickr

  39. Problem: UI Text Annoys Advancd Users Interface text addresses first-time needs, then gets in the way for experienced users.

  40. Indexes

  41. Indexes Image from ACJI on Flickr familiarity • leverages synonyms • effective

  42. Alternative Indexes

  43. Problems with Indexes • Studies show people prefer to search. • Indexes are tedious and hard to create. • You need a HAT to keep it synchronized.

  44. Quick reference guides

  45. Quick Reference Guides minimalist• just enough to get started • users not overwhelmed • simple • 80/20

  46. 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

  47. Personalization

  48. Personalization Reduces scope of content • speaks directly to user• all relevant content

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