.: The Buzz [September 2008] |
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SUMMARY
Change is in the air. When the next President comes into office they'll be hit with a slew of competing agendas to bring change to the federal Web space. We share our view on several ideas relevant to many enterprise Web managers....New research about what people do online reveals some surprising insights that can help you craft your Web strategy...There is a right way and a wrong way to write actionable instructions - how does your online help measure-up?
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| Transition Brew: the Next Administration and the Internet |
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As the conventions fade and the US election kicks into high-gear, an exciting brew of ideas are perking for the next presidential administration to bring change to government Web site management. Time will tell if any of them stew into real change, but it sure is fun watching the pot boil.
Ideas for changes in Web site management include: - a call from academia for government to shift away from publishing sites and into exposing data
- a radical streamlining of sites in the UK that may hold promise for other nations to follow
- an anti-corruption flag planted for transparency by the good-government crowd
>>Continue Reading "Transition Brew"
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| 80 Percent of Online Visitors Only Lurk |
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With all the attention devoted to Web 2.0 capacity and online publishing activity shifting to blogs and user generated content, I found inspiration in a new Gartner report called “generation virtual.” The question driving the report was how to go viral.
This study says look at audience behavior and plan accordingly: - only 3 to 10 percent create content
- the same number (3 to 10 percent) comment on content
- a higher number (10 to 20 percent) will do less time intensive work (surveys, ratings, forward to friend, ask question) that helps cyberspace hum and
- 80 percent or more just lurk
So what does this mean for YOUR Web strategy?
>> Continue Reading "80 Percent Only Lurk"
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| Six Steps Toward Actionable Instructions |
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I don't know about you, but I find online help and support to be mostly a mess. There's a better way. Richard Saul Wurman has written about a fantastic method to assure when you write instructions that the audience can take action on them...and avoid mistakes. Actionable instructions, he says, need six parts:
- Objective: What's The Destination?
- Purpose: For What Reason?
- Core: What's The Procedure To Follow?
- Time: What's The Duration?
- Expectation: What Can I Anticipate Along The Way?
- Failure: How Do I Recognize An Error/Common Mistakes?
Most of the time we write instructions focusing only on procedure and forget the rest of it, especially the part about how much time it takes and common mistakes to beware of. I'd recommend you grade your current help-related content against this checklist. Is it actionable, or merely content masquerading as help?
>> Continue Reading "Actionable Instructions"
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