Information Architecture Standards
In technical writing our focus is on being clear, concise, consistent, correct and complete. While at this, we are unconsciously thinking about content structure, organization, navigation, and access. We are, in fact, thinking about information architecture. As Mir G. Haynes says, “You do it, you just don't know it.”
Technical writers are increasingly taking part in managing large and complex documentation projects. Besides delivering content, they have to look at new ways to efficiently author and deliver content to meets user needs.
Technical writers should take a disciplined approach to structure content by closely tracking standards that are available for information architecture, information design and content management. They also have to study how other companies are implementing these standards and perform benchmarking studies to identify ways to improve content.
This article describes the following information architecture standards and methodologies that are applicable to technical documentation:
- Information Mapping
- DITA
- DocBook
Information Mapping
Developed in 1966 by Robert E Horn, Information Mapping™ consists of an integrated set of principles, techniques and standards for analyzing, organizing and presenting information.
Information Mapping enables writers to break complex information into basic elements for easy retrieval. To achieve this, Information Mapping requires that information is categorized according to its purpose under various information types such as Concept, Principle, Process, Procedure, and so on. It provides research-based principles for chunking and organizing information into modular units called information blocks and information maps so that it is easy to access, understand and remember. For example, Information Mapping borrows from George A. Miller’s research finding on the limits of human capacity to process not more than 7±2 chunks of information at a time. Information Mapping also recommends various ways to present the content for each information type.
Most of the principles, techniques and standards described in the Information Mapping method are not new to writers. However, a formal training on the Information Mapping method can help writers to quickly get adjusted to structured writing environments.
For more information on Information Mapping, see the following online resources:
http://www.infomap.com
http://www.namahn.com/resources/documents/note-IM.pdf
DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing and delivering technical information with a focus on information interchange and reuse.
DITA provides a generic topic type and proposes three other topic types—Concept, Task and Reference. It then lets you define additional topic types that are based on these topic types. This feature lets you create your own topic types to meet your information needs.
To enable reuse, DITA requires that topics must be able to stand alone so that they can be understood when they are encountered out-of-context, for example, when a user finds the topic through search, an index, or by following a link.
DITA maps enable different organization of topics for different documentation deliverables. For example, you can have a DITA map for a user guide and another for a training manual. Writers can use DITA maps to define the relationships between topics, to create navigational tools (hierarchical and sequential), or to add metadata to topics. The unique feature of DITA maps is that it lets you set the title and metadata for a topic in the context of its location in the topic hierarchy and for different deliverables. This lets you dynamically change the title for a topic in relation to its parent topic, and for each deliverable. Metadata can be used to identify a topic as advanced for one deliverable and basic for another.
For more information on DITA, see the following online resources:
http://xml.coverpages.org/dita.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/
DocBook
DocBook is a widely used system for authoring structured documents using SGML or XML. It was originally developed for authoring technical documents relating to computer hardware and software but can be used for any other type of documentation.
DocBook provides an extensive DTD of 300 plus elements that cover just about every conceivable technical documentation requirement. Most of the DocBook element names are easy to understand (for example, , , and ) and tell you what a block of text is. However, as most documents use fewer elements, there is a need to customize the DTD to filter out the elements that are not used.
If you are thinking of implementing structured writing and single sourcing in your organization, DocBook provides a standards-based, time-tested solution, and is supported "out of the box" by a number of commercial and open source tools. You can save a lot of time by not having to define your own DTD and creating the style sheets for single-sourcing your content to produce output in various formats.
For more information on DocBook, go to http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/
Other IA Standards
Other information architecture standards that are applicable to technical documentation and related fields are:
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) at http://www.adlnet.org
Structured Product Labeling (SPL) at http://www.fda.gov/oc/datacouncil/spl.html
ASD Simplified Technical English (formerly AECMA Simplified English) at http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/
S1000D at http://www.s1000d.org/
ATA iSpec 2200 at http://www.airlines.org/
Topic Maps at http://xml.coverpages.org/topicMaps.html and at http://www.topicmap.com
Summary
Though most of the information architecture standards are targeted towards structured authoring environments, the learning that we take away from these standards can be applied to traditional authoring environments. For example, the 7±2 information-chunking limit proposed by the Information Mapping method is relevant to traditional authoring environments also.
A study of various standards applicable to technical documentation and related fields and how they are implemented by other companies will motivate us to look again at the content we deliver and our authoring and delivery processes. A deeper understanding of our content and processes helps us to make intelligent decisions for improving the way in which we author and deliver content that meets our user’ needs.
http://www.stc-india.org/indus/042005/themeselva.htm
Technical writers are increasingly taking part in managing large and complex documentation projects. Besides delivering content, they have to look at new ways to efficiently author and deliver content to meets user needs.
Technical writers should take a disciplined approach to structure content by closely tracking standards that are available for information architecture, information design and content management. They also have to study how other companies are implementing these standards and perform benchmarking studies to identify ways to improve content.
This article describes the following information architecture standards and methodologies that are applicable to technical documentation:
- Information Mapping
- DITA
- DocBook
Information Mapping
Developed in 1966 by Robert E Horn, Information Mapping™ consists of an integrated set of principles, techniques and standards for analyzing, organizing and presenting information.
Information Mapping enables writers to break complex information into basic elements for easy retrieval. To achieve this, Information Mapping requires that information is categorized according to its purpose under various information types such as Concept, Principle, Process, Procedure, and so on. It provides research-based principles for chunking and organizing information into modular units called information blocks and information maps so that it is easy to access, understand and remember. For example, Information Mapping borrows from George A. Miller’s research finding on the limits of human capacity to process not more than 7±2 chunks of information at a time. Information Mapping also recommends various ways to present the content for each information type.
Most of the principles, techniques and standards described in the Information Mapping method are not new to writers. However, a formal training on the Information Mapping method can help writers to quickly get adjusted to structured writing environments.
For more information on Information Mapping, see the following online resources:
http://www.infomap.com
http://www.namahn.com/resources/documents/note-IM.pdf
DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing and delivering technical information with a focus on information interchange and reuse.
DITA provides a generic topic type and proposes three other topic types—Concept, Task and Reference. It then lets you define additional topic types that are based on these topic types. This feature lets you create your own topic types to meet your information needs.
To enable reuse, DITA requires that topics must be able to stand alone so that they can be understood when they are encountered out-of-context, for example, when a user finds the topic through search, an index, or by following a link.
DITA maps enable different organization of topics for different documentation deliverables. For example, you can have a DITA map for a user guide and another for a training manual. Writers can use DITA maps to define the relationships between topics, to create navigational tools (hierarchical and sequential), or to add metadata to topics. The unique feature of DITA maps is that it lets you set the title and metadata for a topic in the context of its location in the topic hierarchy and for different deliverables. This lets you dynamically change the title for a topic in relation to its parent topic, and for each deliverable. Metadata can be used to identify a topic as advanced for one deliverable and basic for another.
For more information on DITA, see the following online resources:
http://xml.coverpages.org/dita.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/
DocBook
DocBook is a widely used system for authoring structured documents using SGML or XML. It was originally developed for authoring technical documents relating to computer hardware and software but can be used for any other type of documentation.
DocBook provides an extensive DTD of 300 plus elements that cover just about every conceivable technical documentation requirement. Most of the DocBook element names are easy to understand (for example, , , and ) and tell you what a block of text is. However, as most documents use fewer elements, there is a need to customize the DTD to filter out the elements that are not used.
If you are thinking of implementing structured writing and single sourcing in your organization, DocBook provides a standards-based, time-tested solution, and is supported "out of the box" by a number of commercial and open source tools. You can save a lot of time by not having to define your own DTD and creating the style sheets for single-sourcing your content to produce output in various formats.
For more information on DocBook, go to http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/
Other IA Standards
Other information architecture standards that are applicable to technical documentation and related fields are:
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) at http://www.adlnet.org
Structured Product Labeling (SPL) at http://www.fda.gov/oc/datacouncil/spl.html
ASD Simplified Technical English (formerly AECMA Simplified English) at http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/
S1000D at http://www.s1000d.org/
ATA iSpec 2200 at http://www.airlines.org/
Topic Maps at http://xml.coverpages.org/topicMaps.html and at http://www.topicmap.com
Summary
Though most of the information architecture standards are targeted towards structured authoring environments, the learning that we take away from these standards can be applied to traditional authoring environments. For example, the 7±2 information-chunking limit proposed by the Information Mapping method is relevant to traditional authoring environments also.
A study of various standards applicable to technical documentation and related fields and how they are implemented by other companies will motivate us to look again at the content we deliver and our authoring and delivery processes. A deeper understanding of our content and processes helps us to make intelligent decisions for improving the way in which we author and deliver content that meets our user’ needs.
http://www.stc-india.org/indus/042005/themeselva.htm
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