Articles

Documentation and Training Slide Decks Now Available

Thursday, November 08, 2007

The slide decks from Documentation and Training East 2007 are now available. A few speakers have yet to share their slides, but the bulk of the presentations are available for view within a web browser, and without the need to download additional software. This service ...

Filed under: 3D : Content Quality Management : Content Reuse : DITA : Document Engineering : Dynamic Content : Experience Design : Information Architecture : Localization : Mobile Content : Presentations : Publishing : Rich Media : S1000D : Search : Simplified Technical English : Software as a Service : Technical Writing : Translation : Usability : User-Generated Content : Video Documentation : Web 2.0 : XML : XQuery : Web Content Management

Safety Signs and Symbols: Free Library Offers Downloadable Graphics

Thursday, October 25, 2007

If you’ve ever found yourself needing a set of symbols to depict hazards or warn consumers about dangers of other types, look no further than CPTec. The company maintain a free online library of symbols (.gif and .eps formats) that can be downloaded individually or as ...

Filed under: Signs and Symbols : Usability

The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide To Creating And Using Personas On The Web

Thursday, September 27, 2007

In his book, The User is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas on the Web, Steve Mulder takes you through each step of persona creation, and provides time-tested techniques for developing and using personas to help deliver the right ...

Filed under: Experience Design : Usability : Web Content Management

A Usability Evaluation of Web Map Zoom and Pan Functions

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Because screen sizes and display resolutions vary from device-to-device, the usability of web maps relies heavily on successful interface design. In the the first issue of the new online International Journal of Design, researchers Manlai You, Chun-wen Chen, Hantsai ...

Filed under: Experience Design : Usability

Malice in Softwareland: A Review of “Why Software Sucks and What You Can Do About It”

Friday, September 07, 2007

By Kevin Shoesmith, special to TheContentWrangler.com

Reading Why Software Sucks… and What You Can Do About It is like going on a great date. It’s witty, charming, smart, and cryingly funny.

Shame about the cover.

“Why Software Sucks” definitely knows how to ...

Filed under: Experience Design : Humor : Usability

Readability Tools 1.0 for FrameMaker Helps Writers Communicate Clearly

Monday, June 04, 2007

Readability Tools 1.0 is a shareware plug-in for Adobe FrameMaker that provides tools that help you analyze and improve the readability of FrameMaker documents and books. The plug-in provides information about the readability of the content you create. It can do things ...

Filed under: Technical Writing : Authoring Tools : Adobe FrameMaker : Plug-ins : Usability

Writing For The Web: Improving Search Engine Optimization and Enhancing The User Experience

Monday, April 30, 2007

Clients sometimes make the mistake of writing long, editorial-style text for the web. We’ve found that even perfectly competent writers – professionals, like marketing communications pros and publishers of various types – often do not understand how writing for the ...