every page is page one baker

Every Page is Page One

Mark BakerAnalecta Communications Inc.

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Tweet ‘em if you got ‘em

About me @mbakeranalecta

About the conference #stc13

About Every Page is Page One #eppo

About this session #stc13eppo

Bringing Tech Comm to the Web

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Who said…

“Learners … often skip over crucial material if it does not address their current task-oriented concern or skip around among several manuals, composing their own ersatz instructional procedure on the fly.”


Bringing Tech Comm to the Web 4

John Carroll

The Nunrberg Funnel

1990 Users hopping

around from one source to another did not start with the Web

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The sequencing problem

Many sequencing problems reside not in the material alone but in the learner’s use of it. When people refer to instruction opportunistically in support of their own goal-directed activities, it becomes difficult or impossible to predict what sequencing will be appropriate… John Carroll, The Nurnberg Funnel, 1990


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Eliminate sequence A radical approach to sequencing problems is to try

to eliminate sequence: materials designed to be read in any order cannot be read in the wrong order. … The orderly accumulation of prerequisite skill and understanding that can be assumed when material is embedded in a sequenced curriculum cannot be assumed if learners use the material in any order they wish. But, of course, this is just what learners do anyway and is one of the key reasons that materials that depend on carefully sequenced prerequisites fail. John Carroll, The Nurnberg Funnel, 1990


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Radical Then; Mainstream Now

The concept of creating unsequenced material was “radical” in 1990

Today, it is the default The Web is not sequenced Every Page is Page One


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Why “Every Page is Page One?”

On the Web, readers arrive at content Via a Google search Via a recommendation in a social

network Via a link from another page

There is no continuity from where they were before.

Every link leads to a new page one


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John Carroll anticipated this

“Escaping these problems and providing for material to be sensibly read in any order, necessitates a different approach to organizing instruction. It requires a high degree of modularity, a structure of small self-contained units.”



But …

Not every page works well as page one

http://www.toojaded.com/epublisher/upgrading/#page/upgrading_webworks_epublisher_rev_b/c_upgrading_be_spare.html


Jump into the middle The page is in

the middle of something

Reader has to back up to find start of the thread

It may be a “topic,” but it assumes sequence

http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xendesktop-rho/cds-migrate-post-rho.html

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On the Web but Not of the Web

Putting a PDF or a tri-pane help system on you Website does not create Web-like content.

Native Web content does not look like this.

Native Web content is not sequential Readers don’t stick to one site. They

hop around the whole Web


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Writers in denial

Many writers are in denial about the power of Web search. “too many false hits” “too much stuff to wade through” “takes too long to find things” “content is unreliable” “easier to find things in a book with a

well prepared index”



So why do users prefer to search the Web?

Photo: Steven Straiton/Wikimedia Commons

http://flickr.com/people/94299816@N00

http://flickr.com/people/94299816@N00

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Scope

Searching the Web is not like searching the index of one book

It is like searching the index of every book, letter, article, and conversation in the world

Index search only begins when you have found the right book

Finding the right book is expensive



The Long Tail Many low demand

items account for as much total demand as a few high demand items.

Amazon makes a lot of money from the long tail of items regular stores can’t stock

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The Long Tail



Manual is full of holes Manual has only high

demand items Users often need

specific items from the low demand set

They don’t know which items are low demand

The Web has it all


Information Foraging

Photo: Amanda Lea, Wikimedia Commons

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Teamgrad&action=edit&redlink=1


Information foraging

“Information foraging predicts that the easier it is to find good patches, the quicker users will leave a patch. Thus, the better search engines get at highlighting quality sites, the less time users will spend on any one site.”

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: June 30, 2003Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster


Information snacking The growth of always-on broadband

connections also encourages this trend toward shorter visits. With dial-up, connecting to the Internet is somewhat difficult, and users mainly do it in big time chunks. In contrast, always-on connections encourage information snacking , where users go online briefly, looking for quick answers.

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: June 30, 2003Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster


Experience vs. credentials

“Now the technology lets you find experienced people as easily as credentialed ones.”

David Weinberger: To Big to Know


Collegiality

“Links are the visible manifestation of the author giving up any claim to completeness or even sufficiency; links invite the reader to browse the network in which the work is enmeshed, an acknowledgement that thinking is something that we do together.”


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Include it all. Filter is afterward.

“We seem to be making a cultural choice---with our new infrastructure's thumb heavily on the scale---to prefer to start with abundance rather than curation. Include it all. Filter it afterward. Even then, the filters do not remove anything; they filter forward, not out.”




Filter it afterward

The Web is a filter We can filter it for ourselves

Google And with our friends

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Etc.


Filter it socially


Authority is shifting

“If our social networks are our new filters, then authority is shifting from experts in faraway offices to the network of people we know, like, and respect.”

Too Big to Know

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Individual journey

Readers make their individual journey through a Web of information

Our content is one resource they may visit on that journey

But wherever they enter our content, it should act as page one


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How I got here


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Shared vehicles; unique trips

Many different vehicles Each functions independently I chose the sequence to create a

unique journey The airplane design does not depend

on my arriving by taxi The subway works the same if I take

the stairs, not the escalator


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No guided tour

Readers are self directed We have always known most readers

don’t take the guided tour They skip and scan and look stuff up

Now they can self direct across the entire Web

To serve them, provide EPPO topics


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The book model

Books provide the guided tour as primary means Linear book

Support self-guided as secondary means Scanable subheads Index


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The EPPO model

EPPO topics support self-guided as primary means Every pages works as page one Works with search, social curation Works with external resources

Can still provide a guided tour as a secondary means Ordered topic collections Can include external resources



At the crossroads

Try to reclaim the order and certainty of the book world, or cooperate in the linked ecology of the web with its social approach to authority and its fuzzy edges?


EXAMPLES


Recipe

Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Frittata

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/black_forest_ham_and_gruyere_frittata.php







Car review

Subaru Forrester 2003-2008 review

http://www.samarins.com/reviews/forester.html





Technical article

Create REST applications with the Slim micro-framework

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-slim-rest/index.html






Ornithology

Blue-footed Booby

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-footed_Booby




Encyclopedia article

Ottawa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa



Stack Overflow

Python shelve OutOfMemory error

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2196969/python-shelve-outofmemory-error





CHARACTERISTICS OF EPPO TOPICS

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Self Contained

No linear dependencies Never assumes you have read X May assume you know X

May require different types of information “blocks”


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Establish Context

Reader may arrive from anywhere Search and links may be imprecise Allow the reader to get their bearings

quickly Navigable context

If they are a little off, help them get where they should be


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Specific Limited Purpose

Must have a clear idea of the purpose it fulfills for the reader

Purpose must be specific Can’t be self contained or establish

context if purpose not specific Purpose must be limited

One vehicle in a network the reader navigates for themselves

Do one thing; do it well


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Stay on one level

Books tend to change levels Topics support readers choosing their

own path Readers decide when they want big

picture or gritty detail Readers change levels by changing

topics Topics stay on one level


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Conform to type

Topics on a common subject tend to have a similar pattern Recipes Encyclopedia articles on cities Car reviews Ornithology Product comparisons Technical articles 1 2 3 4






http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398080,00.asp


http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-microxml1/index.html

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/07/06/tr.html


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Assume reader is qualified

Books designed as sole source for diverse audience Write for the least qualified reader Often annoying for experienced reader

Topics are one stop in reader’s self-directed journey If reader is not qualified, they can choose

other topics to get qualified


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Narrative minim

Narrative necessary to understanding Can be constructed at different

lengths Places facts into a business or life

context Supports decision making required for

action


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Link Richly

Books are designed for linear reading Links may be considered a distraction Allow reader to deviate from writer’s

planned course Topics are for self directed readers

Make context navigable Enable reader to qualify themselves Enable switching levels Enable onward journey


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Topics and Topic Sets

Need many topics to cover a large subject area

Create topic sets, not books Support random entry Establish type to ensure completeness

and conformance to purpose Support reader choice within your set Make them work on the Web


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The Book Every Page is Page One:Topic-based Writing for

Technical Communication and the Web This fall from XML Press

http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/ Yes, I acknowledge the irony!

There is still a place for books But that’s another presentation

Outline is online on my blog http://everypageispageone.com/2013/05/02/book-outl

ine-every-page-is-page-one/

Comment for a chance to win a copy of the bookBringing Tech Comm to the Web

http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/


http://everypageispageone.com/2013/05/02/book-outline-every-page-is-page-one/



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Questions?

Contact information Mark Baker Analecta Communications Inc. [email protected] Twitter: @mbakeranalecta Company: http://analecta.com Blog: http://everypageispageone.com Book: http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/


mailto:[email protected]

http://analecta.com/

http://analecta.com/

http://everypageispageone.com/


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