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Every Page is Page One
Mark Baker
Analecta Communications Inc.
The book
Every Page is Page One: Topic-based Writing for Technical Communication and the Web
XML Press
http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo
Content Creation, Content Engineering, Content Strategy
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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.”
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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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Even when not on the Web
People search the Web
When watching TV or movies
When reading books
When reading billboards
When reading menus
There is nothing holding the reader to your content anymore
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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.”
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But …
Not every page works well as page one
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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
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On the Web but Not of the Web
Putting a PDF or a tri-pane help system on your 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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How you think your content appears on the Web
How your content actually appears on the Web.
Home page obsolete
“As more and more traffic comes from search and social, the homepage as the entryway into a site’s content is increasingly obsolete,” -- Ann Friedman, Columbia Journalism Review in 2013
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Pyrrhic victory
Control of the homepage often represents a pyrrhic victory for traditional marketers and communicators. I recently heard a communicator say that the homepage was one of the few places where they controlled the message. For this organization, only 10% of site visitors came to the homepage and for every 100 people who arrived at the homepage, only 3 clicked on a news link. Thus, controlling the homepage is only the illusion of controlling the message. – Gerry McGovern
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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”
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So why do users prefer to search the Web?
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Photo: Steven Straiton/Wikimedia Commons
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
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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
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Manual doesn’t cover long tail
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
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Information Foraging
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Photo: Amanda Lea, Wikimedia Commons
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.”
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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.
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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.”
Beth Noveck, Director of the Open Government Initiative
Quoted by David Weinberger in To Big to Know
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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.”
David Weinberger: To Big to Know
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Include it all. Filter is afterward.
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“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.”
David Weinberger: Too Big to Know
Filter it afterward
The Web is a filter
We can filter it for ourselves
And with our friends
Etc.
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Filter it socially
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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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One Journey, Many Vehicles
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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 site model
Home page is the start of the user experience
Site navigation elements structure the experience
More random access than a book, but still a closed world
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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
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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?
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EXAMPLES
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Stack Overflow
Python shelve OutOfMemory error
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CHARACTERISTICS OF EPPO TOPICS
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Self Contained
High level of cohesion
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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Self-contained?
Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Frittata
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Self-contained
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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Not all-encompassing
Reluctant Gourmet
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Specific and limited purpose
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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Establish context
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
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Conform to a type
Recipe
Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Frittata
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Car review
Subaru Forrester 2003-2008 review
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Ornithology
Blue-footed Booby
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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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BIG PICTURE
Pathfinder Pathfinder Pathfinder
WorkflowWorkflow Workflow Workflow
Task Task Task Task Task Task
Stay on one level
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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Self-contained?
Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Frittata
Assume the reader is qualified
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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Exercise: Classify this
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Link richly
Link the essence of the Web
We don’t work on the homepage. We work on the network. The Web is a network and those who work on the Web are networkers. The link is the essence of the Web. Web writing is link writing. … Don’t think homepage. There’s no direction home on the Web because home changes based on the context of what people want to do.
– Gerry McGovern
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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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Covering the big picture
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BIG PICTURE
Pathfinder Pathfinder Pathfinder
WorkflowWorkflow Workflow Workflow
Task Task Task Task Task Task
The book
Every Page is Page One: Topic-based Writing for Technical Communication and the Web
XML Press
http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo
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Questions?
Contact information
Mark Baker
Analecta Communications Inc.
Twitter: @mbakeranalecta
Company: http://analecta.com
Phone: 1 226-808-1098
Blog: http://everypageispageone.com
Book: http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/
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