Ken Dow: Documentation

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 13:40:24 GMT

Usable Help: Exploring embedded Help
"If Help is made inseparable from the user experience it might finally stop being mere 'documentation'".

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 13:15:27 GMT

Gerry McGovern: Why content management software hasn't worked
"Content management software hasn't worked because it was badly designed and massively over-hyped. Software companies lied about their products, charging criminal prices for crap software. It hasn't worked because organizations didn't understand content. They wanted a quick fix. They issued specifications that bore little relation to what they actually needed."
[Via elearningpost]

Or maybe it hasn't worked because, like knowledge management, it's an oxymoron. Or perhaps because "content" is such a vague a word that no one knows what managing it would look like. Here's the punchline, though: organizations are able to write and publish effectively "because they have excellent editors and writers, and because they have well-defined, well-policed publishing processes and policies".

Sun, 02 Mar 2003 15:51:47 GMT

I've applied a Creative Commons license to this weblog, including my songs. In short, you're welcome to use my material provided you give me credit, but you need my permission to make money from it.

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 15:03:23 GMT

E-Learning Post: Beyond cardsorting: Free-listing methods to explore user categorizations
"Free-listing is a semi-structured method. It can be conducted as part of an interview, or as a written exercise (and can be done online as well). Simply ask the respondent, 'Name all the x's you know.' Give them sufficient time to do so. If they stop after very few items, encourage them by saying, 'Can you think of any more?'"

Fri, 22 Nov 2002 01:39:33 GMT

Joel on Software "... delays accumulate, while advances do not (for example, if you have finished this week's work on Friday morning, chances are you will waste time on Friday afternoon rather than starting the next week's work. But if you don't make it on time, you'll still leave at 5 o'clock on Friday, accumulating a delay"

Not just programming, dear reader, but any task that requires a high degree of detailed, abstract thought. Technical writing and instructional design, for example.

Thu, 21 Nov 2002 13:42:04 GMT

The Cranky User article led me to the Baen Free Library: "Online piracy - while it is definitely illegal and immoral - is, as a practical problem, nothing more than (at most) a nuisance. We're talking brats stealing chewing gum, here, not the Barbary Pirates."

Wed, 13 Nov 2002 14:29:53 GMT

Gar's Tips on Suck-Less Writing "Important note to newbies: Never, EVER find yourself saying the following in email to an editor: 'I know you only asked for [your assigned word count goes here], but here's [your outrageously flabby, up all night buzzing your brains out on caffeine until you've lost all perspective and restraint word count goes here].'" [Via Boing Boing]

An informative and amusing collection of pointers on the craft of writing.

Mon, 04 Nov 2002 13:33:12 GMT

An eBook usability triangle "Successful onscreen publishing, whether in Help or eBook format, requires attention to appearance, behavior, and identity"

Tue, 22 Oct 2002 03:39:36 GMT

The lowest-common denominator problem "The more people involved with a documentation project, the harder it is to serve the intended audience." [Usable Help]

Thu, 17 Oct 2002 18:02:11 GMT

If the content isn't good, don't bother "Automation and tools are all the rage, but you can't automate the creation of quality content" [Usable Help]

Thu, 17 Oct 2002 17:52:23 GMT

InfoRomanticism on the Internet "Channeling web technology for internal ideation provides a means to create and capture conversations percolating in peoples' heads at any given moment. The result is a true 'community of inquiry.'" [elearningpost]

Fri, 13 Sep 2002 14:32:36 GMT

The Writing, Not the Words "To be a great copywriter, you need to love the act of writing, you need to respect your audience, and you need to look for new, refreshing ways to get the job done."

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 00:56:23 GMT

Being Objective "What is a learning object? At Cisco, it may be a 10-minute video clip. At U.C. Berkeley, it could be a single slide in an art history course; or it could be the carousel of slides; or the entire course. We don't have a common vocabulary to describe obejcts. Besides, they are relative. One person's object is another person's assembly." [elearningpost]

Mon, 09 Sep 2002 17:22:54 GMT

Information design using card sorting [via Serious Instructional Technology]