Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637029
M. A. Kabel, R. Kiger
The evolution of the information age continues to redefine the roles of professional communications. The primary focus of conveying generalized knowledge is being overridden by the users' need to find specific knowledge in the almost infinite supply of possible sources now available. Because of the complexity of our working-worlds, people do not have the luxury to absorb and internalize general knowledge, but must instead find ways of quickly finding and using the knowledge and experience of others. This need presents new challenges to professional communicators. Knowledge engineering principles are evolving as a means to address the need for readily accessible knowledge. Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) are evolving in response to the need for information that is framed in the specific context of the task-at-hand. We illustrate the commonalities between the evolving paths, and to propose bridges to converge the paths in a more synergistic manner.
{"title":"Convergence of knowledge engineering and electronic performance support systems","authors":"M. A. Kabel, R. Kiger","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637029","url":null,"abstract":"The evolution of the information age continues to redefine the roles of professional communications. The primary focus of conveying generalized knowledge is being overridden by the users' need to find specific knowledge in the almost infinite supply of possible sources now available. Because of the complexity of our working-worlds, people do not have the luxury to absorb and internalize general knowledge, but must instead find ways of quickly finding and using the knowledge and experience of others. This need presents new challenges to professional communicators. Knowledge engineering principles are evolving as a means to address the need for readily accessible knowledge. Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) are evolving in response to the need for information that is framed in the specific context of the task-at-hand. We illustrate the commonalities between the evolving paths, and to propose bridges to converge the paths in a more synergistic manner.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129033523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637054
M. Graham
This paper presents a method for designing product documentation that relates information to acceptable user performance in acquiring specific skills and knowledge. The method involves selecting, organizing and presenting all information using a performance-based development model. The use of the model is illustrated with examples from actual projects.
{"title":"Performance-based documentation","authors":"M. Graham","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637054","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a method for designing product documentation that relates information to acceptable user performance in acquiring specific skills and knowledge. The method involves selecting, organizing and presenting all information using a performance-based development model. The use of the model is illustrated with examples from actual projects.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121668931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637032
L. Deming
Having students learn many kinds of research is valuable to them as students and professionals. A form of primary research with which most technical communication students are unfamiliar is ethnography. This paper describes an ethnographic research project in a technical communication course and explains the purpose, preparation, procedure, and value of the project to the students, the subjects, and the curriculum. The paper also mentions potential problems and possible solutions.
{"title":"Ethnographic research: students studying their profession within its social context","authors":"L. Deming","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637032","url":null,"abstract":"Having students learn many kinds of research is valuable to them as students and professionals. A form of primary research with which most technical communication students are unfamiliar is ethnography. This paper describes an ethnographic research project in a technical communication course and explains the purpose, preparation, procedure, and value of the project to the students, the subjects, and the curriculum. The paper also mentions potential problems and possible solutions.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115879355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637058
J. Ramey
WebFeat was a World Wide Web site design project undertaken on behalf of six units (five departments and an administrative office) in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. The effort was undertaken by seven student/faculty/staff teams: six teams supporting the six participating units and a seventh "core" team to provide design and technical guidance for the overall effort. The management of this project required innovative coordination and communication strategies. However, the success of the project derived as much from conventional as from innovative project management features. The four main success factors for the project, beyond the plain excellence of the students taking part, were the sharing of physical office space, the use of face-to-face meetings, the use of online/paper tracking and reporting tools and the use of team-building e-mails.
{"title":"WebFeat: managing a complex Web design project in an academic environment","authors":"J. Ramey","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637058","url":null,"abstract":"WebFeat was a World Wide Web site design project undertaken on behalf of six units (five departments and an administrative office) in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. The effort was undertaken by seven student/faculty/staff teams: six teams supporting the six participating units and a seventh \"core\" team to provide design and technical guidance for the overall effort. The management of this project required innovative coordination and communication strategies. However, the success of the project derived as much from conventional as from innovative project management features. The four main success factors for the project, beyond the plain excellence of the students taking part, were the sharing of physical office space, the use of face-to-face meetings, the use of online/paper tracking and reporting tools and the use of team-building e-mails.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121452526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637033
M. Steehouder
Instructions for use should not be seen as merely instrumental-they should also persuade the reader to read the text and to act accordingly. Moreover, they should establish a positive image of the product and the manufacturer. In this paper, a collection of instructions for use is used to identify strategies that technical writers apply to fulfill these 'rhetorical' demands; especially strategies that involve the author-reader relationship. The analysis shows that the implied author's role is not only that of a neutral instructor, but also that of a teacher or a salesman. The reader is not only addressed as a technical 'operator', but also as a 'user' who applies the product in a 'real-life task'. The analysis also shows that technical writers sometimes use subtle politeness strategies to compensate for 'face threatening acts' (FTAs). However, all of these rhetorical strategies seem to be applied very unsystematically and often clumsily. The conclusion is that technical writers may be aware of rhetorical demands for their documents, but that the instrumental function still is paramount in their eyes.
{"title":"Author and reader in instructions for use","authors":"M. Steehouder","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637033","url":null,"abstract":"Instructions for use should not be seen as merely instrumental-they should also persuade the reader to read the text and to act accordingly. Moreover, they should establish a positive image of the product and the manufacturer. In this paper, a collection of instructions for use is used to identify strategies that technical writers apply to fulfill these 'rhetorical' demands; especially strategies that involve the author-reader relationship. The analysis shows that the implied author's role is not only that of a neutral instructor, but also that of a teacher or a salesman. The reader is not only addressed as a technical 'operator', but also as a 'user' who applies the product in a 'real-life task'. The analysis also shows that technical writers sometimes use subtle politeness strategies to compensate for 'face threatening acts' (FTAs). However, all of these rhetorical strategies seem to be applied very unsystematically and often clumsily. The conclusion is that technical writers may be aware of rhetorical demands for their documents, but that the instrumental function still is paramount in their eyes.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130662496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637049
Donald E. Zimmerman, Michel Muraski, E. Estes, B. Hallmark
Since 1995, the World Wide Web has grown exponentially, with thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations developing and posting home pages. Some companies and organizations invest thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours developing highly artistic and visually-pleasing pages only to discover that their users become lost when navigating their site, have trouble reading the on-screen text and cannot find the information they seek. Consequently, users never return to their Web site. While numerous authors provide HTML tagging guidelines for developing Web pages, few authors have provided research-based guidelines from information design, interface design, hypertext, legibility and related research. To make Web pages more effective, developers can turn to (1) communication science-based guidelines for enhancing Web site design, and (2) formative evaluation methods. In our presentation, we outline a formative evaluation methodology to help Web page authors improve their Web pages, and illustrate the process with findings from our Web design research that began in 1994.
{"title":"A formative evaluation method for designing WWW sites","authors":"Donald E. Zimmerman, Michel Muraski, E. Estes, B. Hallmark","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637049","url":null,"abstract":"Since 1995, the World Wide Web has grown exponentially, with thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations developing and posting home pages. Some companies and organizations invest thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours developing highly artistic and visually-pleasing pages only to discover that their users become lost when navigating their site, have trouble reading the on-screen text and cannot find the information they seek. Consequently, users never return to their Web site. While numerous authors provide HTML tagging guidelines for developing Web pages, few authors have provided research-based guidelines from information design, interface design, hypertext, legibility and related research. To make Web pages more effective, developers can turn to (1) communication science-based guidelines for enhancing Web site design, and (2) formative evaluation methods. In our presentation, we outline a formative evaluation methodology to help Web page authors improve their Web pages, and illustrate the process with findings from our Web design research that began in 1994.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127875712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637069
J. Ramsay
Roles are changing in the leaner, meaner high tech workplace. Downsized companies have fewer people to do the same amount of work, and those who remain need to pick up many of the tasks that others used to perform. Engineers and technical writers need to broaden their skill bases in order to survive in today's competitive environment. Engineers need to expand their technical skill sets to include communication skills. Technical writers need to add human factors and training to their skill sets. The paper describes how technical writers can help engineers cope with documentation tasks assigned to them and, in the process, broaden the skills of both writers and engineers to make them more competitive in the workforce. Acting as partners in the documentation process, engineers and technical writers can work together to produce documentation with greater technical accuracy and usability than would have been possible had they been working separately in their traditional specialized roles.
{"title":"Corporate downsizing: opportunity for a new partnership between engineers and technical writers","authors":"J. Ramsay","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637069","url":null,"abstract":"Roles are changing in the leaner, meaner high tech workplace. Downsized companies have fewer people to do the same amount of work, and those who remain need to pick up many of the tasks that others used to perform. Engineers and technical writers need to broaden their skill bases in order to survive in today's competitive environment. Engineers need to expand their technical skill sets to include communication skills. Technical writers need to add human factors and training to their skill sets. The paper describes how technical writers can help engineers cope with documentation tasks assigned to them and, in the process, broaden the skills of both writers and engineers to make them more competitive in the workforce. Acting as partners in the documentation process, engineers and technical writers can work together to produce documentation with greater technical accuracy and usability than would have been possible had they been working separately in their traditional specialized roles.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124672762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637024
P. Westendorp
In this study a guided system for the operation of a telephone system is compared with a system with a command-line interface. The system with a command-line interface was designed with three different online help systems: index-based, context-sensitive and interactive respectively. A user test showed that guided systems are most efficient and command-line interfaces are less efficient for novice users. Additional tests showed that the efficiency of a command-line interface may be improved by adding an interactive online help function. With this function the user can apply the information immediately without remembering it and without leaving the help function.
{"title":"Guided systems versus interactive online help","authors":"P. Westendorp","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637024","url":null,"abstract":"In this study a guided system for the operation of a telephone system is compared with a system with a command-line interface. The system with a command-line interface was designed with three different online help systems: index-based, context-sensitive and interactive respectively. A user test showed that guided systems are most efficient and command-line interfaces are less efficient for novice users. Additional tests showed that the efficiency of a command-line interface may be improved by adding an interactive online help function. With this function the user can apply the information immediately without remembering it and without leaving the help function.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116389753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637078
L. Moretto, R. Blicq
This workshop will prepare you to take part in a full “Forum ”presentation at next year’s YPCC, to be held in Quebec CityJi.om September 23-2.5, 1998, and at Forum 2000 to be held in Europe in the year 2000. It will be theJirst time the Forum concept has been attempted in a North American communication conference. To prepare you for this uniquejorm ofpresentation, the workshop will echo, in briej the one-day of training given to presenters who attended the extraordinarily successful Forum 9.5 in Dortmund, Germany, two years ago.
{"title":"A Taste of Forum (and a Taste of IPCC 98)","authors":"L. Moretto, R. Blicq","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637078","url":null,"abstract":"This workshop will prepare you to take part in a full “Forum ”presentation at next year’s YPCC, to be held in Quebec CityJi.om September 23-2.5, 1998, and at Forum 2000 to be held in Europe in the year 2000. It will be theJirst time the Forum concept has been attempted in a North American communication conference. To prepare you for this uniquejorm ofpresentation, the workshop will echo, in briej the one-day of training given to presenters who attended the extraordinarily successful Forum 9.5 in Dortmund, Germany, two years ago.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130732253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637065
L. Olsen, B. Mirel
We designed and piloted a technical communications course for software engineering majors offered concurrently with the upper level project course in software design. A third of the design course students jointly enrolled in the writing class. One goal of the collaborative courses was to use writing to improve the quality and usability of students' software. We studied the effects of writing on students' user centered beliefs and design practices and on the usability of their products through surveys, document analyses, expert reviews, and user test results. When possible, we compared the usability processes and products of teams who took and did not take the writing class. Our findings show that the synergy resulting from this interdisciplinary approach effectively sensitized students to user centered design, instilled in them a commitment to it, and helped them develop usable products.
{"title":"Effects of project documents on product usability: a study of writing in software projects","authors":"L. Olsen, B. Mirel","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637065","url":null,"abstract":"We designed and piloted a technical communications course for software engineering majors offered concurrently with the upper level project course in software design. A third of the design course students jointly enrolled in the writing class. One goal of the collaborative courses was to use writing to improve the quality and usability of students' software. We studied the effects of writing on students' user centered beliefs and design practices and on the usability of their products through surveys, document analyses, expert reviews, and user test results. When possible, we compared the usability processes and products of teams who took and did not take the writing class. Our findings show that the synergy resulting from this interdisciplinary approach effectively sensitized students to user centered design, instilled in them a commitment to it, and helped them develop usable products.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130017676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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