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RE: What good is it if you can't find it?

Subject: RE: What good is it if you can't find it?
From: "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 12:49:22 -0800


H*ll no -- both of the examples I cited were online and
both of the examples were of a type where full-text
searches were useless. It's the synonyms that were missing
and the synonyms that are important in both HC and OL indexing.

But it's more low-level than just indexing; it's a failure to
look at your documentation through your user's eyes. It is
information design. It is anticipating the user's question
and serving up the answer, because by the time users turn to
the docs, they are already frustrated and they need that
answer *now*. And those concepts are universal, HC or OL.
-Sue

At 03:36 PM 11/15/2002 -0500, John Posada wrote:

>>the only way you're going to find it is via an index

This only applies to HC delivery right?

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656
"Available for next gig Feb 01, 2003"




-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Francis Byrd [mailto:jbyrd -at- byrdwrites -dot- com]

Both of Susan's examples support one of my pet contentions: the most
accurate and complete information in the world is useless if you can't find
it, and chances are, the only way you're going to find it is via an index. A
GOOD index. In the examples Susan cited, the lack of comprehensive indexing
made the information nearly impossible to find.



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