Standards for Online Communication: Publishing Information for the Internet, World Wide Web, Help Systems, Corporate Intranets

by JoAnn T. Hackos and Dawn M. Stevens

Experience firsthand what makes online information work and why Standards for Online Communication gives you guidelines for how to place information online within your company. It provides both a design and development process and a set of guidelines for the Internet, intranets, and help systems for designers and authors who need to create effective electronic information. Drawing on their design and consulting experience, authors JoAnn Hackos and Dawn Stevens demonstrate how to judge what will work for your users, how to translate users' needs into a set of clear specifications, and how to implement these specifications. Using examples of good design, they provide expert advice and guidance on: * Giving customers and employees the online information they need to do their jobs * How to organize online information so your users can easily navigate through it * Dealing with the special design requirements of the Web, intranets, and online help systems * What graphics users really need and where sound and video fit in * The issues involved with accessibility and navigation-multimedia, maps, indexes, hypertext, and more On the accompanying CD, you'll find a winhelp file of the book designed according to the principles taught in the book. Whether you are a webmaster, user-interface designer, content creator, or technical writer, with Standards for Online Communication you'll experience firsthand what makes online information work and why. Visit our Web site at: http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471156957
• ISBN13: 9780471156956
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

An eye-opening book that changed my approach for the better

The approach outlined in this book has completely changed the way I tackle developing on-line documents. I have extensive experience in a technique called Information Mapping that is an analysis and document design methodology for paper documents. In many ways the authors' methods are similar to Information Mapping - at least at a macro level. After reading this book I've gained an appreciation for the vast differences between paper and on-line documentation. My "paper-based" thinking before this book resulted in a waste of the underlying capabilities of an on-line document. The authors show how to use technology to vastly improve your reader's efficiency and overall experience when seeking and reading the information you create. If you are used to writing for paper-based publications, or have deveopled on-line pages using nothing but intuition and judegement, this book will completely change your way of thinking.

A must for online Help authors

This is an excellent book for helping technical authors accustomed to writing printed documentation in understanding how and why the structure should be different for online readers. Too often authors simply move the information online without any clear understanding of the context in which the reader is using it. I recommend this book to anyone developing software Help files or planning single sourcing documentation.

The Tech Writer's Bible

If you are serious about becoming a successful technical writer, I highly recommend purchasing this book.Of all the books I have purchased, I refer to this one the most often. The CD is great because it has the entire text of the book categorized for easy access right from your computer!Many technical writing books are outdated and were written BI (before the internet). This book focuses on technical writing using newer technology such as the Internet, WWW, and corporate intranets. I can't count the number of times this book has come in handy. It is a great reference that you should keep close at hand. Great job Joann!

This one's a keeper.

Recently, I worked on an online help project and found various parts of the online communication process mystifying, which our online help writers take for granted. Examples that come to mind are:- Standard length of each help file- The need for popups- Using the imperative form as opposed to gerundsThese are some of the things I was looking to have explained to me when I bought the book. The book turned out to be perfect for this. Not only does it cover the mechanics, reasons, and standards of online communication, it also contains many nuggets of wisdom regarding the various methods of writing that we apply as technical writers. It's helps me decide when weighing different ways of presenting the same information. So even if you are an experienced online help writer there is no doubt that this book would enlighten your approach to the everyday tasks of creating online/context-sensitive help.Also, the book comes with a CD that has all the information in the book in a help file that is indexed and can be searched. This is excellent for quick reference.Trust me, this book is a keeper if you create any kind of online help.

A "Must Have" for Technical Writers

I have a shelf full of books on technical writing. Ever on the lookout for something new or better, I picked this up. As usual, Joann delivers only the best.