You can just read the sections about the tasks you want to do.

Topic-based authoring is great. Where do things go wrong?

Wrong: Building blocks ≠ presentation

Wrong: Don't auto-burst print books

The Frankenbook

A Frankenbook is organized neither for linear reading, nor for random access. No matter where you land in it, you are in the middle of a maze with buttons to move up, down, or sideways, but no means of finding the end of any thread of narrative, great or small. Every page is page 297 and none of them answer your question .... .

Strategy: Treat "Every Page Is Page One"

Characteristics of "Every Page Is Page One" topics:

• Self-contained
• Specific and limited purpose
• Conform to type
• Establish context
• Assume the reader is qualified
• Stay on one level
• Link richly

Strategy: Create self-contained topics

Strategy: Provide context before

Strategy: Provide context after

How Users Read on the Web

Summary: They don't. People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences.
— Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group

Strategy: Use article summaries

Strategy: Use lots of subheadings

UX Matters

Strategy: Structure information in lists

Unreadable content — no list formatting

Nebraska is filled with internationally recognized attractions that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of the most popular places were Fort Robinson State Park (355,000 visitors), Scotts Bluff National Monument (132,166), Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum (100,000), Carhenge (86,598), Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (60,002), and Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park (28,446).

Rewritten for readability — 124% usability improvement

In 1996, six of the most-visited places in Nebraska were:

• Fort Robinson State Park
• Scotts Bluff National Monument
• Arbor Lodge State Historical Park & Museum
• Carhenge
• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
• Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park

Strategy: Make sentences short and easy

We're thinking "great literature" (or at least "product brochure"), while the user’s reality is much closer to "billboard going by at 60 miles an hour." — Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think

Where would you find this in a store?

Physical spaces vs. digital spaces

Faceted navigation

Faceted navigation is arguably the most significant search innovation of the past decade.
— Peter Morville, Search Patterns

Strategy: Leverage facets if they make sense

Tags are practical facets

With tags, your files and photos can be in two, three, or more “places” at once.

Strategy: Use tags to provide other groupings

Another example of tags

Hierarchical Table of Contents fail

Strategy: Provide "Bottom-up" navigation

Example from "Every Page Is Page One

Strategy: Create "getting started" guides

Also "Getting Started" Guides

Strategy: Provide sequential tutorials

Strategy: Give the big picture

Strategy: Create "quick reference" guides

Strategy: Emphasize troubleshooting information

StackOverflow focuses on troubleshooting

Strategy: Use homepage as routing page

The conclusion of most studies about how people use help is that people don't use help.

Audio excerpt

Fitt's Law

The further a user must travel with their cursor, the less accuracy the user will have in reaching the target object.

— Travis Lowdermilk, User-centered Design

Strategy: Bring help into the UI

Strategy: Make the UI more helpful

Half of the UI is text

WordPress blanked out

Youtube blanked out

Strategy: Show tasks in the UI

The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn, harder to use. This is the paradox of technology.

— Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

Documentation for a complex product

Special outputs per role?

Strategy: Provide filtering mechanisms

Include it all. Filter it afterward.

Strategy: Apply progressive information disclosure

Progressive disclosure is the best tool so far: show people the basics first, and once they understand that, allow them to get to the expert features. But don't show everything all at once or you will only confuse people and they will waste endless time messing with features that they don't need yet.

Example of progressive information disclosure

An example of progressive disclosure in the UI

Strategy: Create different sidebars for different sections

The premise behind minimalism is that people learning to use computer software are impatient, mentally active, and curious. They want to begin right away getting their work done.

— David Farkas and Thomas Williams summarizing John Carroll

Strategy: Focus on real-world tasks

Strategy: Provide hello-world tutorials

Strategy: Keep the focus in the task domain

Strategy: Use visuals to reduce cognitive load

Chartjunk doesn't enhance learning

Show workflows and processes

Strategy: Reduce distraction, focus on the point

Strategy: Worry about ideas, not high art

Science has become more complex, more specialized—every sub-discipline has its own vocabulary.

Peter Morville: Each search informs the next

Strategy: Define unfamiliar terms in a glossary

Strategy: Put keywords, synonyms in page metadata

Add keywords in topics

---
title: Access ACME
permalink: /access/
tags: [getting-started]
keywords: logging in, authentication, login
---

Push keywords into page metadata

Strategy: Write for users who *really* don't speak your language

Give users a problem to solve with your docs

Observe users do tasks during training sessions

Test users directly on reader comprehension