Online Documentation: Design Issues

Designing online documentation? You mean I can’t just take the word processing file and make it available on our network, or throw the document into a Windows Help file and ship it? Well, I would not recommend either of those options. You should take many things into consideration when you design an online document.

Exactly what you must consider depends in part on the vehicle you plan to use. If you are creating a Windows Help file, you don’t have to start from scratch to design how the user will access the information and the basic navigation methods. Those are standard parts of what you create when you use the Windows Help compiler. I’ll focus on Windows Help in the next article.

A few basic considerations should be part of planning all online documentation:

Keep each topic short, so users don’t have to scroll forever.

Give users more than one way to access the information. For example, a table of contents and searchable keywords are two common methods.

Use the technology available to create links or jumps to related information.

Don’t use too many visual devices, such as blinking, reverse video, and many colors. A little bit of any of these may be fine, but more of a good thing easily becomes a distraction in online documents.

Don’t rely solely on color to convey information, such as a jump. Remember that some people are color-blind.

Give users some way to know where they are in the document. This way they won’t "get lost in hyperspace."

Find out how graphics, tables, and other non-text items will look in the online document. You may need to adjust how you handle these.

Learn how users use the documentation and what they expect from it.

Use fonts and other visual devices that will work on all the different types of equipment your users may have.

Explore the different authoring tools that can help you create online documentation effectively. Many of these tools are reviewed periodically in the major computer magazines.

Once you’ve tackled all of these issues and any others unique to your situation, you’re ready to design a prototype. This is a particularly important step for online documentation. You’ll want to write a small piece and then see how it looks in its online version. You may get some surprises. Show it to other people, especially some users.

You may need to refine your design based on the results of testing your prototype. Of course, you need to plan the content of your information as well. I won’t repeat here what I covered in my articles last year. Good planning and writing are critical to successful online documentation, just as they are for printed information.