Presented at STC Summit in Phoenix, AZ and Toronto, ON.
Precision Content offers a holistic approach to content strategy developed by Ascan Information Architects Limited.
2. Presenter – Rob Hanna, CIP IMCC
• Director/Chief Information Architect – Ascan
• 2014 Fellow – Society for Technical Communication (STC)
• 2013 Information Mapping Certified Consultant (IMCC)
• 2011 Certified Information Professional (CIP)
• 20 years experience in technical communication
• Expert in structured authoring and content management
• Specialist in taxonomy design and DITA/XML architecture
http://www.linkedin.com/in/singlesourceror
3. 2014 Precision Content™ Roadshow
• Rochester, NY - April 13-14
• Toronto, ON - April 16
• Seattle, WA - April 27-30
• San Francisco, CA - May 8-9
• Phoenix, AZ - May 18-21
• Washington DC – June 9-10
• Chicago, IL - TBD
4. As Information Architects, we make
information easier to use by…
• Analyzing your
• Information assets
• Business drivers, and
• End-user needs
• Building solutions that organize complex information
• Optimizing information for
• Usability
• Utility, and
• Maintainability
5. Intelligent Content
• Content that is
• not limited to one
• purpose
• technology, or
• output
• structurally rich and semantically aware, making it
• discoverable
• reusable
• reconfigurable, and
• adaptable.
6. The content challenge
Employee
churn will be
largest contributor
to information gaps
within the next 5
years.
Managers spend 17% of their
time (6 weeks a year)
searching for information
A single issue of the daily New York Times
contains more information than a 17th
century man or woman would have
encountered in a lifetime
Structuring and standardizing
information is a “hot” issue due to
increased corporate governance,
accountability, regulatory controls and
compliance demands.
Knowledge
gaps effect
productivity,
efficiency, and
effectiveness
7. STOP THE INSANITY!
Stop throwing
more technology
at your content
problems!
Content problems
require
content solutions!
8. Precision Content™
• A holistic approach to content
strategy helping to manage
your investment in content
transformation
• Includes elements of
• utility
• usability, and
• maintainability
PrecisionContent™trademarkAscanInformationArchitectsLimited2013
9. DITA/XML is…
• An agnostic structured framework for technical communication
• An open standard gaining rapid adoption
• Extensible across industries
• Lacking a consistent, robust authoring methodology
10. Information Mapping® is…
• An agnostic structured authoring methodology for business
• A proprietary standard with global reach
• Teachable to any audience of practitioner
• Lacking modern technology delivery framework
11. Together…
• DITA provides the framework
• Information Mapping provides
the methodology
• Together they facilitate content
that is more focused and agile –
Precision Content
13. A New Way of Thinking
• Information Mapping is software for the brain
Message
Design
Human Factors
Engineering
Programmed
Learning
Documentation
Writing
Research
Cognitive
Psychology
Instructional
Systems
Design
14. Language Arts
Language Arts for Personal
Response (LAFPR)
• To emotionally engage the reader
• Techniques:
• narrative style
• varied vocabulary & sentence
structure
• withholding information
• Writer driven
• Meant to be READ
Language Arts for Information
(LAFI)
• To convey information that readers
need to use
• Techniques:
• consistent modular structure
• concise, direct vocabulary
• use of graphics
• Reader driven
• Meant to be USED
16. Ikea Instructions: LAFPR
• If novelist Michael Ondaatje wrote Ikea instructions ….
“The eel-shaped talisman squirms inside the raspy recycled box. A
series of quarter turns – clock hands marking time – bonds back to
base. An alphabet of connections in English and French. A into groove
B. C slots into D. Chipboard credenza communicating Swedish
hegemony.”
• Author/parodist: Geoff Thomas
Globe & Mail, August 27, 2009
17. Information types
How do I
change a
tire?
How does
the engine
work?
Should I
drive on the
left or on the
right in the
UK?
What is an
airbag?
What are the
parts of my
dashboard?
What’s the
maximum
speed of this
car?
PROCEDURE
PROCESS
PRINCIPLE
CONCEPT
STRUCTURE
FACT
36. Let’s try it again ...
How many words on the next slide can you
memorize in 20 seconds?
37. Now... how many can you memorize?
Vegetables Computer parts Instruments
peas hard drive violin
endive sound card harp
carrots monitor piano
spinach mouse trumpet
celery processor cello
broccoli flash drive flute
tomato keyboard guitar
39. Excerpt from a medical journal...
• pN3 description only closely
mirrors descriptions for pN3a
+pN3b + pN3c
• Use of footnotes confusing
• “Clinically detected” and “Not
clinically detected” are not exact
opposites, and
• Inconsistent enumeration of
lymph nodes
40. Same content after Information Mapping®
• 44.2% reduction in word count
• 20% reduction in passive voice
• 18.4% increase in Flesch Reading Ease
score
• 30% increase in white space
• Elimination of footnotes, and
• Addition of labels and visual
elements
42. Mapped
Content
Mapped information meets 2 fundamental needs
• Mapped information
serves the needs of the
human brain to
• find
• understand
• use, and
• retain information.
• Mapped information serves
the needs of technology to
manage information that
• has a standard structure
• is searchable, and
• reusable.
43. Circling back to DITA
• DITA Information Types
• Concept
• Task
• Reference, and
• None of the above (topic)
44. How do they relate?
Information Mapping Types
• Concept
• Fact
• Structure
• Procedure
• Process
• Principle
DITA/XML Information Types
• Concept
• Reference
• Reference
• Task
• Task
• Topic
45. For more information, contact
Rob Hanna
Chief Information Architect
+1 (416) 723-4138
rob@infoarchitects.ca
Ascan Information Architects Limited
29-7340 Copenhagen Rd
Mississauga, ON Canada L5N 2S5
www.infoarchitects.ca