Findability: Taming the Information

Scavenger HuntPresented by:Cheryl Landes

Tabby Cat Communications

Columbia Internet Technologies SharegroupAugust 31, 2016

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

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

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

What is findability?

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

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.

The Findability Formula

Findability = Navigation + Search

What is navigation? Navigation is how you move around in

content. To navigate, you use:

Buttons Tabs Tables of contents Menus Links Indexes

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.

Problems and Challenges

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?

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

Tables of contents Footnotes Indexes

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

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

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

subtopic)

Where are the menus and help? Amazon Kindle Reader

for PC Adobe Digital Editions

for PC

Links Footnotes

Links to external articles

Links (continued) Are links meaningful?

Table of Contents Pillars of the Earth

Table of Contents Conversation and

Community

Tables:Always an issue online

Cloud Computing

Tables 500 Low

Glycemic Index Recipes

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

Index MS Style

Guide

Lack of an Index What index?

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?

Accessibility Are there alternatives for users with

disabilities to consume your content?

Accessibility (continued) Tabs or buttons?

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

won’t find what they need

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?

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?

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

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!

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.

Contact InformationCheryl LandesTabby Cat Communicationsclandes@tabbycatco.comtabbycatco.com