RE: Research about how online users use a Table of Contents

["Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>]

To find current research, I would use my normal research skills to see what
I could locate online.

My personal opinion, however, is that a sufficiently detailed and well
constructed TOC is wonderful, but as a rule indexes are far better and more
readily used. A killer TOC is a thing of beauty! But your whole project has
to be really well structured in and of itself (and based on how users
*think* about the subject they want information about) or you frustrate
them.

What do you do at Microsoft, Lisa?

Bonnie Granat
http://www.GranatEdit.com
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l
> .com] On Behalf Of Lisa Salas
> Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:55 PM
> To: 'techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com'
> Subject: Research about how online users use a Table of Contents
> 
> Hello All,
> I am tasked with having to rework my online content so that 
> it can be more easily used. I am specifically reworking the 
> "Table of Contents" - and yes, I already know that 95% of all 
> users don't actually use the online Table of Contents but 
> merely run a search and read the Titles and Abstracts from 
> the search results list.
> 
> I'd like to know if y'all know of any current research done 
> on how online users interact with a Table of Contents.
> 


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