The New Face of Documentation

Changing how we write, manage, and publish; how we relate to management and customers, and do business

© 2009 Intentional Design Inc.www.intentionaldesign.ca

Short history of documentation methods

In the beginning, there was the book.

Then there was the PDF of the book.

Next there were online documents / help.

Modular/ topic-based content

The internet

Desktop publishing

Content management

Parallel developments

Interactivity of Web 2.0

Smaller apps

Better interfaces

Faster access to help

Minimalist documentation

Twitter documentation:Changed expectations

1. Document basics.2. Get user comments.3. Respond to comments.

Twitter

The No Documentation approach: “We don’t document it; we just fix it.”

Orange Peel Media

Public record of support response encourages responsiveness.

Get Satisfaction

Does that mean elimination of documentation?

• Some form of documentation needed when:– System is complex– First-to-market features (no transferable concepts)– Embedded assistance– Training– Wayfinding content• Guiding user to add-ons and supplies• Enriching the experience of using a product or service

Change attitudes toward content

• How does your organization view your content: – Pain point in a cost center?– Corporate asset in a profit center?

• Hardware lives in bins.

• Content lives in database cells.• Both are assets.

Manage your content like an asset.

• Financial assets:– How much care is given their management?– What happens when financial assets are

mismanaged? (witness Sarbanes-Oxley!)• Content assets:– How much care is given their management?– What happens when content assets are

mismanaged?

Is it time for SOX for docs?

Learn from industries that run on content: Work your content

Beyoncé, I Am ... Sasha Fierce, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

What goes into a musical experience?

Blair Douglas, Nelson Mandela’s Welcome to the City of Glasgow

Zachary Richard, MarjolaineOK Go, Here It Goes AgainFantasia, Walt Disney Productions

MP3 file Track + metadata +Cover art

Track + metadata +Cover art + VIdeo

Track + metadata +Cover art + Video +Film + Game +Value-add content

Live show

TV show

Feature film

Sound track

Video game

Music video

Music track

Value-add = ROI

Music track

TV show

Feature film

Sound track

Video Game

Music video

Music is no longer“just a track”

Multiple formats,what contentsupports what?

Music video

TV show

Feature film

Sound track

Video Game

Music track

Adding value to content

Single-use assets• Cheap• Little value• Utilitarian

Multiple-use assets• More cost• More value• More care

How do you from here to here?

Focus on the UX

If simplicity = joy, and instant mastery = brand loyalty, then useexperience design* to create a delightful UX.

* Experience design includes:• Multi-channel experience• Digital experience design• User experience• User-centered design• Service design• Usability

In a word: strategy

Content strategy that allows for content to:•Provide value for consumers•Gain value for your organization

This is, in essence, a product portal

Rich UX,lots of content

www.allmusic.com

Work the content: the “buy” is onlycontent type #5

www.allmusic.com

Blog posts

Genre listsGenre descriptionsNavigation data

Cover artMusic filesMusic labelsAds

7

2

1

4

44

44

8

123

3 3

456

5 6

78

Look at the end goal: find content

• How do you develop a content strategy that:– Integrates incoming content types?– Converges possibly 10,000+ incoming content

components per day?– Ensures content is findable?– Uses appropriate content types?– Syndicates user-specified subsets of content?

Management of content designed to serve the consumer

• Critical aspects:– Presentation layer to control the user experience– Content management to automate delivery– Taxonomy to handle the searchability

• The ability of content to be created for:– Convergence– Integration– Syndication

Look at the end goal: find content

• Universal user goal– Consume content (text, graphics, video, sound) for

instruction, information, social connection, and/or entertainment.

• Universal provider goal– deliver the content in the best possible way for

consumer consumption.

When is a treasure hunt not a treasure hunt?Where there’s no treasure at the end of the hunt.

Content convergence is a move away from content silos

a move away from arbitrary content silos.

Content integration is combining content

combining content from multiple sources.

Portable content creates efficienciesContent syndication is

using automated publication to reach your audience.

Training instantiation

TechComm instantiation

Support instantiation

A tech comm example - “The Triumverate”:3 sections, 3 instantiations

HP Knowledge Center

h30413.www3.hp.com/SupportServices/country/us/en/support/T1100.html.htm

Same idea; better delivery. Presentation shows thought and consideration for user’s time.

Strategic content means portable content.

Content can be mixed-and-matched to fit new contexts.

Portable content makes context more important.

Content must support multiple contexts.

Complex contexts demand concise content.

Shape content around a single concept.

Context changes content.

The ability to re-use content across contexts increases content value.

Portable content and experience design

Content on the page comes from external sources: convergence and syndication.

The content here is integration of data and visual content.

Mash-ups are also a form of content convergence.Experience design can improve comprehension

Experience design creates consumer valueContent is integrated from:

• Airline booking

• Hotel booking

• Car rental booking

• Google maps

• Weather network

• User-generated content

… and more.

Convergence is automated, generating an automatic, customized itinerary.

This convergence of content provides a value-add service to the user.

www.tripit.com

Content is not isolated.Content is self-contained but not isolated.

As in music, the convergence is more powerful than single bits of content.

To be portable, content needs to:• Be structured• Conform to standards• Have semantic properties• Be findable (searchable)

Match structures to purpose HTML

XHTMLMicroformats

XMLDITADocBookS1000DData

WikisStructured wikisDITA wikis

WHY?The market demands it

Internally:• Organizations need to deliver more content, faster, cheaper.• The content needs to work for many similar products.• There is a need to deliver to multiple markets , sometimes in multiple languages.• There is too much content to deal with, to create linear content.• Organizations need to protect their brands.

Externally:• Users want what they want.•Users want their content now.• There’s always an alternative.• They can DIY in the blink of an eye.

Gaming communities: Users take charge

• New games have minimal instructions– Don’t know what users want yet

• As users gain experience, they want to share tips, tricks, information– Vendor can provide the user forum or users will

set up their own• What happens when user/fan sites take over?– Their sites can rank higher in search– You’ve lost ability to manage your brand

Apple iPhone: Brand implications

BBC: Delivery of cross-silo content

Users demand it

Organic content convergenceGames• Some users dissatisfied with documentation provided.• Built their own database.• Better quality, more features.

Apple• Search for “iPhone help” or “iPhone error 12846” and observe the rankings•Users stepped in and started forums•Brand management issues arrive.

BBC• Delivering a mix of content.• Multiple languages• Value-add to service consumers• Strengthens brand

Corporate sites are like icebergs: the visible tip is “marketing;” below the surface, it’s all technical info.

Information portal

TechComm

content

User-generated content

Engineering content

CRM content

Support center content

Marketing content

RSS feedsSubscriptions

Training content

Strategic content should flow through organizations as needed by consumers.

Convergence creates possibilities.

The end goal is consumer delight and satisfaction.

The move away from single-use, linear content is happening fast.

Every day, the bar is raised a little higher.

The pressure is on to devise strategies for portable content.

You snooze, you lose.

Strategic content leverages business drivers

Product differentiation

Cost impact

Customer profitability

Number of customers

Number of suppliers

Switchability

Spare industry capacity

Entry barriers

Relative service

Product performance

Relative market share

Overhead

Variable cost

Customer price sensitivity

Capital intensity

Level of service

Relative perceived value

Relative costs

ROI: Market attractiveness

IRR: Competitive advantage

Current profitability

The new documentation doesn’t necessarily look like documentation.

Content strategy means rethinking the nature of content.

If it can’t delight, content should at least be useful.

Strategic content is everyone’s issue

* Christopher Cashdollar, Creative Director, Happy Cog Studios

With social media, broken experiences can damage brands faster than ever.

“Nothing can deter confidence quicker than a broken experience.”*

New content delivery is multi-layered, out of the silos.

In tough economic times ...

• Necessity is the mother of invention ...• Hard economic times drive innovation –

from energy to manufacturing to technology

• When times get tough:– You can’t afford to be complacent– It’s not enough to be “competent”– It’s not enough to do a “good” job– It’s not enough to “follow orders”

Challenge = opportunity

• Not just advice for the music industry• Not just for entertainment content• Tough times demand:– Inspiration– Vision– Innovation– Initiative

Think holistically; act boldly.

Deliver well.

If you can’t be entertaining, be enjoyable.

• By making the customer experience user-focused, you create a better experience.

• Better experience is a market differentiator.

• It says, “We care about our customers.”

How will your audiences use your content?

• Example:– First, there was Twitter.– Then came TweetDeck.– Then came TinyTweet.

(and so on, and so on)• The UX gap was filled by others.• Close to 400 Twitter apps out there.• That could be deliberate strategy.• Is that OK for your brand?

Think outside the site

• What are the touch points?• What can be automated for users?• What are the preferences of your audiences?• How creative can you be?• What is the best you can provide, in practicality?

Can you fill a gap?

• Exploit the potential of your content– Structure– Findable – Engaging

• Deliver a rich UX

• First impression of a site: 50 milliseconds!• Watch teenagers surf for information.• Watching the Geek Squad: technicians leave a

page within a few seconds in search of “something shorter” (easier comprehension).

Are you a T-shaped thinker?

You’re adept at convergent, synergistic thinking.

www.davidarmano.com/thought.html

Does your content have semantic properties?

• Is it structured?• Can it be re-used?• Can it be filtered?• Can it be searched (more importantly,

found)?• Can it be personalized?• Can it be integrated, syndicated?• Can your content converge?

Lots of places to find inspiration

Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

• How does your content measure up?• Do you have a strategy to move to the

next level?

• Check your competition.• Look to other industries

for inspiration.

Contact Info, Acknowledgements,Resources

Presentation © 2009 Intentional Design Inc.

Presenter:Rahel Anne Bailie, Content Strategist+1.604.837.0034www.google.com/profiles/rahel.bailie

Photographs used under Creative Commons:http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/

HTML http://www.w3schools.com/html/DEFAULT.asp http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/

XHTML http://www.w3schools.com/Xhtml/ http://www.xhtml.org/

Microformats http://microformats.org/about/ http://www.xfront.com/microformats/

HTML, XHTML, Microformats

XML http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/ http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

DITA http://dita.xml.org/ http://dita.xml.org/5-minute-dita-tutorial

DocBook http://www.docbook.org/ http://wiki.docbook.org/topic/DocBookTutorials

S1000D http://www.s1000d.org/

And many other schemas:http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_intro.asp

XML, DITA, DocBook, S1000D

Wiki languages http://www.it.uu.se/internt/web/wikihelp/wikilang http://semanticweb.org/wiki/Structured_wiki http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-gentle/anne-gentle/dita-wiki

Specialty XML, conversions http://www.stilo.com/ http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_to_xml_mapper.html

Wikis, Other XML