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
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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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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 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”
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So why do users prefer to search the Web?
Photo: Steven Straiton/Wikimedia Commons
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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
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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 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
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Information Foraging
Photo: Amanda Lea, Wikimedia Commons
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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
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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
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Experience vs. credentials
“Now the technology lets you find experienced people as easily as credentialed ones.”
David Weinberger: 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.
“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: To Big to Know
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Filter it afterward
The Web is a filter We can filter it for ourselves
Google And with our friends
LinkedIn Facebook Twitter 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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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
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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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Recipe
Black Forest Ham and Gruyère Frittata
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Car review
Subaru Forrester 2003-2008 review
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Technical article
Create REST applications with the Slim micro-framework
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Ornithology
Blue-footed Booby
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Encyclopedia article
Ottawa
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Stack Overflow
Python shelve OutOfMemory error
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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
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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
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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/
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