RE: Information Mapping

["Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>]

Mats Broberg wrote:
> Anyway, due to logistical and packaging reasons, I am limited to the A5
> format for user's manuals. I would like to get in contact with technical
> documentation specialists who have successfully implemented the
> presentation part of the Information Mapping concept in this small
> format, and toss some ideas. 
> 
> It does pose some design problems, due to the considerably more narrow
> pages.


I took the Info Mapping class about seven years ago, and I found the
concepts in how to organize material to be very valuable. Embedded If/Then
tables in procedures are wonderful tools when used properly, and I still use
the Ps and Ks (processes and knowledge) organizational concept that IM
taught back then (I'm assuming they still do). I have been able to
reorganize some of the most mixed-up documents and procedures and make them
more usable by applying these two things.

However (and I did not endear myself to the IM instructor for telling him
this), I thought their documentation format was not as functional as they
seemed to think it was. In particular:

-- I don't like how the map title and headings are the same size (or close
to it). My eye doesn't see the map title unless I force it to go there. I
tend to go straight for the top heading and read down from there, missing
the map title altogether. The map title, to me, looks like the headers you
find at the top of normal pages, so I don't look at them. 
-- I don't like IMs use of a narrow left column for headings because the
words wind up stacked. In my opinion, any heading more than two lines long
needs to be rewritten, but you can't always get away from long, stacked
headings with their format. This would be magnified in an A5 format.
-- Unlike Info Mapping, I prefer chapter titles and several levels of
headings to help visually organize the content. I find it makes documents
much easier for users to follow. The documents that I have seen that use
something along the lines of the IM format tend to look like a bunch of
unrelated pages thrown together.

I noticed that the examples on the IM web site have horizontal lines
dividing the chunks of information. This was not the case with the training
material in the class I took. Without the horizontal lines, the headings
just floated alone in the right margins and effectively disappeared to my
eye. For example, I looked up something in the index in the training
material, and I couldn't find it on the specified page. It turns out that
the only instance of the tiny word I looked up was hanging way out in the
right margin. I didn't see the word at all because it was on the same
baseline as the body text and not anchored visually by anything. Someone
actually had to point out the word to me before I saw it. I thought that was
ridiculous, and I told the instructor that. He spit and sputtered for a
while about the usability testing that had been done on their format, then
ignored me as much as he could after that. I still think I was right! (And
maybe they eventually thought so, too, and added the horizontal line...)

Mats, as tempting as it may be to try to implement all of what you learned
right away, I would suggest that you implement the organizational part of
the class first. If you already have a working A5 template, use that. Your
documentation will still improve because it will be better organized, and
maybe you won't have to resort to that blocky, clunky format. You can always
change the look of your document later if you still think that their method
works for what you're writing, and it will be easier to implement because
your documents will be organized in a way that fits their thinking.

I'll probably get flamed for writing this, but hey, it's my opinion, and I'm
entitled to it!  :-)

Donna

------------------------
Donna Jones
Technical Writer II
Zebra Technologies Corp.
Vernon Hills, IL


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