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Information Architecture |
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| "All human progress is the
results of standing on the shoulders of our
predecessors."
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| Background: |
This guideline is to help define standard formats for documents used by customers to solve issues and make their job easier. This could take the form of many different categories such as:
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| Intent: ... to build a taxonomy for your information | To create documents that have a well-organized information, and from which information can be easily extracted. | |||||||||
| Definitions: | The
following terms will be used within this guideline:
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| Building a knowledge structure: |
Bring together people who understand the customers needs to create the set of categories / topics to organize your knowledge in a logical way. An example would be two-level hierarchy of Products types to categories |
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| Create the form of the knowledge: |
Base on the categories / Topics chosen, create the key words that would best translate meaning and understanding to the customer. An example might be for the topic of "installation", the following key word need to be thought about:
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| Ownership: |
It is best to assign an owner within the tech. Support group of the categories to insure that the format chosen is working and to be the prime person for updating or creating new knowledge elements in that category. Sometimes it helps to switch categories around the staff to get a fresh look and increase learning among the technical staff. |
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| Review of the knowledge elements: |
A routing should be established to review the document. The review can cover technical, legal and business (presentation). The process should all easy and quick review of the document. The intent is to leverage all users to maintain quality by asking for feedback on the quality of the documents within the internal as well as the customer base.
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| Templates: | A template of the intended format and key words should be established for each category. Topic and made available to the support staff. They should used these templates to take submitted questions and their respective answer and convert it into a new knowledge element. | |||||||||
| Summary tips: |
1.
Start
with an open mind: Assume nothing. Study your customer, identify
their information needs and present the information in the language
and order they expect it.
Test, Test,
Test 2.
Chunk the content: Assume visitors are in a hurry.
Make it as easy as possible for them to scan your content so
they can identify and focus on the relevant information.
Provide plenty of subheads.
Use white space to separate chunks of information. 3.
Create meaningful categories: Categories should be based on
customer's needs, not the assumptions about how information should
be presented. 4.
Design for Speed: 5.
Follow accepted standards: 6.
Avoid unnecessary graphics: 7.
Design for easy reading: 8.
Design for universal access and for the lowest common
denominator: 9.
Keep visitors informed of their current location: 10.
Design for printing
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Last Updated May2003 Any comments, please mail