Findability

The findability category includes posts that relate to discoverability, search, organization, and other issues related to how to arrange, present, and navigate through content. The goal of findability is to allow users to find the content they're looking for. Strategies for findability might involve chunking up content, arranging content in a progressive information display, or arranging content in a more visible way.

The following content is in the findability category:

How to find academic research to back up your tech comm decisions | May 19, 2023

Write the Docs Podcast episode 31: Site search, with Peter Levan | Sep 9, 2020

Write the Docs Podcast episode 7: Let The Robots Do The Work | Jul 6, 2017

Recording of my WTD Portland 2017 presentation on Building navigation for your doc site -- 5 best practices | Jun 8, 2017

Write the Docs Podcast episode 6: Metadata and UI copy | Jun 8, 2017

Slides for Write the Docs Portland presentation on doc navigation best practices | May 14, 2017

Write the Docs Podcast episode 5: Where do we belong? | May 1, 2017

Upcoming 2017 Write the Docs Conference in Portland | Mar 3, 2017

Recording of User-Centered Design Principles for Organizing Documentation | Feb 18, 2017

Zooming out and in with navigation | Sep 25, 2016

Reviewing content in DITA versus Jekyll | Apr 13, 2015

Using metadata to control online navigation through portlets | Mar 27, 2014

Single-page docs versus "Click Insanity" | Jan 12, 2014

Recording of STC Berkeley presentation on why users can't find answers in help | Jan 8, 2014

DITA's output does not require separation of tasks from concepts | Jan 5, 2014

WordPress tip: Create a series of posts | Dec 29, 2013

Researching the right keywords (search engine optimization) | Dec 23, 2013

Single sourcing and duplicate content (search engine optimization) | Dec 16, 2013

Introduction, frames, iframes, and tech comm tools (search engine optimization) | Dec 13, 2013

Collapsible header sections -- more problematic than helpful | Dec 11, 2013

A few things tech writers frequently say: Videos tedious, topics best when short, people just use Google, and more | Nov 19, 2013

Recording and slides for "Why users can't find answers in help" presentation to STC Silicon Valley | Oct 23, 2013

My Upcoming Presentation at the STC Silicon Valley Chapter -- "Why Users Can't Find Answers to Their Questions in Help Content" | Oct 5, 2013

Learning How to Communicate Visually in Documentation | Oct 3, 2013

How to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) Your Help Documentation | Sep 22, 2013

Narrative Workflow Topics: Helping Users Connect the Dots Among Topics | Sep 12, 2013

Creating Good Content Requires Cross-Department Collaboration | Sep 6, 2013

Sticking with Obvious Information Versus Creating Information that Users Need | Sep 4, 2013

Subheadings: Perhaps the Most Useful Technique in Technical Writing | Aug 23, 2013

Examples Are a Primary Way That Complicated Concepts Become Clear | Aug 20, 2013

Interactive Poll: Why Can't Users Find Answers to Their Questions in Help? | Aug 15, 2013

Why I Test Nearly Everything | Aug 8, 2013

When Organizing Big Data Content, It's Okay To Be Messy | Aug 7, 2013

7 Ways to Learn Difficult Subjects in Order to Write Useful Content | Aug 1, 2013

Finding a Starting Point: Answering Questions or Addressing Purpose? | Jul 10, 2013

How do you answer every user's question? | Jun 28, 2013

What Have Been My Most Successful Experiences in Connecting Help Material with Users? | Jun 26, 2013

Notes from Future of Technical Communication Webinar | Jun 25, 2013

Recording of "Making Content More Findable When Users Browse and Search" (UA Europe Presentation) | Jun 24, 2013

Structured Authoring By For And Or Nor With In the Web | Jun 8, 2013

Reader Question: How Do I Restrict Content by Role in the Same Output? | Jun 6, 2013

Can Help Content Have Recognizable Facets? | May 29, 2013

Faceted Search and Query Reformulation | May 28, 2013

On Metadata and Help Content | May 27, 2013

Moving Beyond the TOC in Organizing Help Content -- Illustrated Edition | May 22, 2013

What Does Content Re-Use Look Like in a Web CMS? | May 17, 2013

Is Structured Authoring (like DITA) a Good Fit for Publishing on a Website? | May 14, 2013

Why Long Topics Are Better for the User | May 6, 2013

Do Short Topics Make Information More Findable? | May 5, 2013

Does DITA Encourage Authors to Fragment Information into a Million Little Pieces? | Apr 22, 2013

Why Does Content Become Disorganized? | Apr 9, 2013

Sample Expand and Collapse Code with Twisting Buttons | Mar 31, 2013

Evaluating the Usability of Collapsible Sections (or jQuery's Content Toggle) | Mar 25, 2013

How to Organize Page-Level Content | Mar 16, 2013

Two Competing Help Models: One-Stop Shopping or Specialized Stores? | Feb 13, 2013

Single Sourcing and Redundancy | Feb 2, 2013

Import DITA Webhelp Output into WordPress | Jan 21, 2013

Moving Between the Agora and the Desert | Dec 16, 2012

7 Ways to Increase Flare's Search Engine Optimization in Google's Results | Dec 15, 2012

Knowledge Has a New Shape, and It's Not the Book | Dec 12, 2012

Podcast: Include It All, Filter It Afterwards -- Interview with Mark Baker | Dec 11, 2012

What Does "Every Page Is Page One" and "Include It All, Filter It Afterward" Mean? | Dec 4, 2012

Incorporating Learning into Tech Comm Deliverables | Nov 26, 2012

The Blame Game of RTFM | Aug 30, 2012

Blending Tech Comm with Support | Aug 26, 2012

Using the Proximity Principle to Design Online Help Navigation | Aug 13, 2012

Why Glossaries Help Users Find Information | Aug 9, 2012

Applying Progressive Information Disclosure to Online Help Navigation | Aug 9, 2012

Misconceptions about Topic-Based Authoring | Jul 31, 2012

The Importance of Contextual Navigation, or Cross References in Topics | Jul 23, 2012

Unconscious Meaning Suggested from the Structure and Shape of Help | Jul 18, 2012

Why Do We Need Navigation At All? | Jul 12, 2012

Taxonomy, Metadata, and Search: Notes from Seth Earley's Confab Workshop | Jun 25, 2012

Returning to Findability | Jun 25, 2012

Writing User-Centered Documentation, or, My Best Days as a Technical Writer | Jun 21, 2012

Webinar Recording -- Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies | Feb 18, 2012

The "Home Depot Model" of Findability, or, Social Search | Jan 10, 2012

Looking at Breadcrumbs in a New Way | Jan 5, 2012

Using Tags to Increase Findability | Dec 26, 2011

Slides from STC Webinar on Organizing Content (Findability) | Dec 5, 2011

My STC Webinar on Organizing Content -- This Thursday at 4pm EST | Nov 30, 2011

Using Treejack as a Method for Evaluating Your Help's Navigation | Nov 2, 2011

Customizing the "No Results Found" Page with Helpful Wayfinding Tips | Oct 17, 2011

"One Day I'm Going to Figure Out the Solution to Help..." | Jun 28, 2011

Diverging Directions for Tech Comm: Social Media or Structured Authoring | Jun 9, 2011

Where Topic-Based Authoring Fails: End-to-End Scenarios | May 25, 2011

Podcast: Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-based Hierarchies | May 18, 2011

Examples of Help Systems that Provide Users with Multiple Entry Points? | May 13, 2011

Mooer's Law and Findability | May 9, 2011

A Paradox of Navigation Metaphors for the Web | May 2, 2011

Topic Chunking and The Broken Alarm Clock | Apr 27, 2011

The Importance of Chunking for Sorting | Apr 18, 2011

Book Review: Everything is Miscellaneous, by David Weinberger | Apr 15, 2011

Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies | Mar 21, 2011

Podcast: A Practical Guide to Information Architecture, with Donna Spencer | Mar 18, 2011

The Real Source of Findability | Mar 10, 2011

Findability and The Information Paradox | Jan 12, 2011

"Known Limitations": Making the Negative Space of Help Content a Little More Explicit | Dec 16, 2010

Eight Defining Questions that Shape Content Organization [Organizing Content #29] | Oct 1, 2010

Organizing Content for Constructivist Learning [Organizing Content #28] | Sep 27, 2010

Is Rhetoric Relevant? Considering the "Message in Context" [Organizing Content #27] | Sep 22, 2010

Why Learning Software Is So Hard, and Organizing Content into Levels [Organizing Content #26] | Sep 9, 2010

Organizing for Learnability [Organizing Content #25] | Sep 1, 2010

Best Practices for Writing Interface Text [Organizing Content #24] | Aug 13, 2010

The Interface Is Text [Organizing Content #23] | Aug 11, 2010

The Technical Writer as an Outsider: How Ambitious Are You? [Organizing Content #22] | Aug 6, 2010

Principles for Organizing Print Material [Organizing Content #21] | Jul 30, 2010

Relying on the Wisdom of the Crowds with Help Authoring [Organizing Content #20] | Jul 27, 2010

Emergence [Organizing Content #19] | Jul 20, 2010

Separating Basic from Advanced Topics: How Twitter Organizes Their Help [Organizing Content #18] | Jul 8, 2010

Organizing Content as Story [Organizing Content #17] | Jun 29, 2010

Can Blogs Work as a Web Platform for Help? [Organizing Content 16] | Jun 23, 2010

Faulty Assumptions About the Scope of Help Content? [Organizing Content 15] | Jun 11, 2010

The Semantic Web and Content Findability: Interview with Patrick Warren [Organizing Content 14] | Jun 10, 2010

Using Mediawiki Templates to Organize Content [Organizing Content 13] | Jun 9, 2010

From Help Authoring Tools to Web Tools, Especially Wikis [Organizing Content 12] | Jun 3, 2010

Search Engine Optimizing Your Help Content for Google [Organizing Content 11] | May 28, 2010

Figuring Out Search Algorithms [Organizing Content 10] | May 27, 2010

Browse Versus Search: Stumbling into the Unknown Unknown [Organizing Content 9] | May 26, 2010

Second-Level Faceted Navigation [Organizing Content 8] | May 25, 2010

Implementing Faceted Classification/Search with a Help Authoring Tool [Organizing Content 7] | May 21, 2010

Faceted Classification, Faceted Search [Organizing Content 6] | May 20, 2010

Topic-Based, Hierarchical Navigation [Organizing Content 5] | May 19, 2010

Imposing Order Versus Observing Order [Organizing Content 4] | May 18, 2010

Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold [Organizing Content 3] | May 17, 2010

Introducing Project Swordfish [Organizing Content 2] | May 17, 2010

New Series: Organizing Content [Organizing Content 1] | May 17, 2010

My Love Affair with Drop-Down Hotspots Ends | Feb 21, 2008