The document discusses strategies for writing content that is friendly for localization. It recommends establishing relationships with translators, creating style guides for each localization, and writing content with localization in mind by using simple sentences, consistent terminology, and avoiding ambiguities from words with multiple meanings. The document also notes that writing two versions can help localization - a simplified version and a more natural localized version to suit the language and culture.
Pre-sales (marketing) and post-sales (technical) content used to be clearly defined. But now, many prospects consult technical content before making a buying decision. Too many organizations have shiny marketing and horrific technical content, and the gaping difference makes customers uneasy. A unified customer experience means that prospects buy with confidence.
Pre-sales (marketing) and post-sales (technical) content used to be clearly defined. But now, many prospects consult technical content before making a buying decision. Too many organizations have shiny marketing and horrific technical content, and the gaping difference makes customers uneasy. A unified customer experience means that prospects buy with confidence.
With the growing number of DITA tools in the marketplace, one would think that it would be easy to justify using one of them to create and publish technical documents. By now, most managers have been exposed to the benefits of creating technical documentation according to some agreed upon set of documentation rules using DITA. However, understanding the benefits of this technical approach and being able to justify the expense of implementing it are two different things.
Many technical documentation managers are not able to articulate the long-term advantages of converting product information repositories to DITA in order to build a suitable business case to get such a project approved. This presentation outlines the many cost savings and revenue generation opportunities created by managing product information directly in DITA.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.
Marketing is no longer just a communications function. It’s increasingly about designing and delivering great customer experiences, starting with a prospect’s very first touchpoint. As a specific example of this, Scott examines the growing phenomenon of interactive content — content that our audience actively participates in, not merely passively consumes.
From games and quizzes to configurators and assessment tools, interactive content changes the way we engage prospects and breaks through the monotonous noise of passive white papers and webinars.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 1, 2015.
In topic-based information development environments such as DITA, the perennial question is “How large should a topic be?” While the topic-oriented approach has been shown to be suitable for authoring, only two levels of presentation are common: an entire set of content as a book (which may run into hundreds of pages), or component-by-component as authored.
The first (monolithic) presentation type is deficient because readers are not able to easily locate the information relevant to their situation. The second (fragmented) presentation type is deficient because it is not aligned with information-seeking behavior.
We have implemented a document structure of recursively nested information components that allows a web application to dynamically chunk information according to the reader’s behavior. At publication time, the source components are translated to granular chunks with an index, then further compiled into a recursive format that describes nesting and ancestry.
As with other presentation types, the information can be viewed in a single long document or addressed at the base component level. In addition, intermediate levels of presentation are possible. When the user selects an item from the table of contents, the component and all children components are displayed as a single chunk. Parent chunks are accessible through TOC and breadcrumb navigation that is defined in the document. After moving to a parent chunk, the starting point chunk is included as a child.
The varying levels of granularity allow for search results to more accurately present a document properly scoped to the user’s needs.
In addition, dynamic chunking supports well-documented “information foraging” behavior much better than the granular presentation approach, while preserving addressability that is lacking in monolithic presentation.
After exploring the advantages of dynamic chunking, Ben and Owen describe the publishing processes that transform the source DITA content to the dynamic presentation.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 1, 2015.
Content reuse is one of the key reasons for converting to a single source. But how do you know what the reuse potential really is? Because converting content formats is a major investment, you need to base your business case on real data.
You can find the data with these steps:
• Observation
• Comparison
• Analysis
This session gives you a methodology to learn how to determine the true opportunity for content reuse and quantify it for your business case.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 1, 2015.
It’s been 10 years since the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) was released as an OASIS standard. Join the chair of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee for this overview of where DITA has been and where it is going. She covers such topics as what OASIS is and how the DITA Technical Committee functions, the forthcoming DITA 1.3 release (Will it be worth the wait?), the lightweight DITA initiative (How much weight can a standard lose?), and tentative plans for DITA 2.0.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.
The Smart Ass™ Fan is the latest ceiling fan from Big Ass Fans®. Smart products are everywhere now, and they’re connected. Imagine a family of smart products and how much content could be/should be shared. These products can include mechanical, electrical and software parts AND content.
How will you deal with this explosive content requirement? This presentation takes a tour of the problem and explains what content engineering is …and how it can be used to create a sustainable content life cycle. Smart products need smart content.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.
We aim to create high-quality content. We really do. But, more-often-than-not, we fail. We understand that high-quality content must be clear, concise, and consistent in voice, tone, and terminology. We also know that it’s supposed to be easily findable, accessible, retrievable, and relevant those who need it—delivered when, where, and how they prefer it.
Crafting content that follows the rules (grammar, punctuation, linguistics) isn’t good enough. Our content also has to be helpful.
In this fast-paced talk, Scott Abel describes what it means to be helpful. You’ll discover how understanding the power of explanation
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Reimagining and reinventing customer support is expensive and hard. We hear that all the time. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, if you do it “right” it can be fairly cheap and fun. In this session, we will look at using a Design Thinking approach to imagine new realities, create prototypes quickly and cheaply, and iterate on this to create a roadmap to your transformation.
Perhaps most important is that we will discuss some of the freely available tools that will help and guide you through the Design Thinking landscape. Unlike most speeches, we will give you specific, tangible baby steps to take once you get back to your own work lives.
Three Takeaways
1) Understand the power of Design Thinking
2) Imagine what Design Thinking can do for you
3) Know what tools are available and where to find them
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Part 1: Assessing the Current State: Needs Analysis and Information Gathering
Learn how to assess the current state of your technical support content by looking through the lens of content strategy and content engineering.
Traditionally, technical details about products and services were considered to be post-purchase content. Technical information — the stuff contained in owner’s manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials — was provided to consumers only after they purchased a product or service. However, that’s changing as companies recognize that prospects often search the web for technical content to make purchasing decisions.
Think of a technical resource center as an online, one-stop shop for information about your products and services. Over time, and done well, a technical resource center can help you grow your business by attracting prospects, while simultaneously working to support and build loyalty and trust with existing customers.
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Part 1: Assessing the Current State: Needs Analysis and Information Gathering
Learn how to assess the current state of your technical support content by looking through the lens of content strategy and content engineering.
Traditionally, technical details about products and services were considered to be post-purchase content. Technical information — the stuff contained in owner’s manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials — was provided to consumers only after they purchased a product or service. However, that’s changing as companies recognize that prospects often search the web for technical content to make purchasing decisions.
Think of a technical resource center as an online, one-stop shop for information about your products and services. Over time, and done well, a technical resource center can help you grow your business by attracting prospects, while simultaneously working to support and build loyalty and trust with existing customers.
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Moderated by Paul Perrotta with Panelists: Michael Rosinski of Astoria Software, Julie Newcome of Ultimate Software, Joe Gelb of Zoomin Software, Ray Gallon of The Transformation Society, Alex Masycheff of Intuillion, Ltd., and Anna N. Schlegel of Net App.
Budgets are tight. Times are lean. But you know you need to improve your Technical Resource Center. You could just hope it happens. Or, you could learn from the lessons of those who have gone before you. In this fast-paced panel discussion, Paul Perrotta will ask a panel of seasoned professionals for advice on how to pitch your ideas and secure funding. The panelists discuss the pitfalls to avoid, and they’ll share approaches, pro-tips, and advice to help you get what you need.
Ryan MacCarrigan’s keynote covers the growing role of Agile Development and Lean in the context of content development and delivery—where complex content is the “product” and the end goal is to shorten cycle times, eliminate waste, or improve measured business outcomes without sacrificing quality or accuracy.
The audience will learn:
How to structure strategic content development in a similar fashion to the Agile product development lifecycle
How the “Build-Measure-Learn” framework of Lean Startup fame can be applied to rapid content testing and delivery
How developing a Lean mindset can help content-driven organizations break down silos and “Fail Fast,” improving overall institutional knowledge.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
My colleague and I managed a team of 5 to 7 writers, using Agile processes to successfully overhaul a Help system for complex genetic sequencing software in just over six months. The approach uses 3 weekly sprints that gets each writer 1) analyzing and identifying gaps in existing content 2) writing and updating content, and then 3) peer editing and revising content. The sprints overlap so that every week each writer is actively writing, peer reviewing and editing content.
Facing deadlines for frequent quarterly releases, we used Excel spreadsheets and OneNote notebooks to record meeting notes, topic TOCs and assignments, rather than a more administrative intensive ticket-based system (such as JIRA). Writers, whose skill levels ranged from junior to senior, learned how to use the software through hour-long question-and-answer group sessions with SMEs.
Attend this session to learn how an agile writing process can help boost collaboration and increase comradeship amongst information developers; decrease the time spent with subject matter experts, and optimize content development.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Designing the content experience revolves around the quality and the quantity of content. Answering questions like what kind of content, how much of it, and where should it be located are prime in a content professional’s mind. In her talk, Eeshita will discuss and share the pillars of content user experience — both quality and quantity. The attendees will learn techniques and processes to enable quality and monitor quantity of valuable content.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Effective page design is often overlooked in the development of technical information. Studies have shown that the visual design of information has an immediate and lasting visceral impact on both credibility and usability. Good page design ensures that information is easy to find, read, understand, and remember. The science of human visual perception and attention provides a foundation for understanding traditional design elements and principles, and how they can be combined to ensure high-quality, effective information development.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Before you’re ready to answer your customers’ questions, you need to ask some of your own: Where is the information leaking out of my content? How can I capture the human intelligence that went into writing the information in the first place? Where does my information development process have too much friction?
Find out how asking and answering these questions can help support your information developers as they create understandable information and actionable intelligence for both humans and bots. Identify your information leaks and learn how to stop them. Learn how to remove friction to stop wasting people’s time and to transform your information development and delivery process. Create the future by leveraging your intellectual property.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Translation Commons is a nonprofit aiming to be an online one-stop community for all information relating to translation and localization. How do you organize content for an entire industry? How do you create a website structure that allows users to find the information they need, even when it’s a needle in a haystack?
Content planning or Information Architecture determines how information is displayed or accessed. For Translation Commons, planning took much longer than development and it was worth every second of it.
The audience will learn of various techniques and methodologies which will help them organize large sets of information.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Workshop Part 2: Creating the Future State: Enterprise Content Creation, Structure and Distribution
Learn how to plan and implement a future state of enterprise content creation, structure, management, and delivery for a modern technical resource center.
Traditionally, technical details about products and services were considered to be post-purchase content. Technical information — the stuff contained in owner’s manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials — was provided to consumers only after they purchased a product or service. However, that’s changing as companies recognize that prospects often search the web for technical content to make purchasing decisions.
Think of a technical resource center as an online, one-stop shop for information about your products and services. Over time, and done well, a technical resource center can help you grow your business by attracting prospects, while simultaneously working to support and build loyalty and trust with existing customers.
Presented November 27-28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
The NetApp content strategy team is driving a wide-reaching effort to simplify content creation, sharing, delivery, and content management systems reduction. Anna Schlegel will share how her team is leading an enterprise-wide effort to build a more connected content experience at NetApp with sponsorship at the CEO and SVP level across the entire organization.
In this presentation, attendees learn how to design a corporate content strategy, streamline the content ecosystem, obsolete unnecessary content, and formalize content governance. The key to this effort is selling the value proposition such as reduced cost, reduced complexity, and a better customer experience.
Anna will help you understand how to identify key players, navigate internal politics, and set the stage for content strategy success company-wide. You’ll leave knowing how to set the right goals, create teams, develop leaders, and utilize tracking methodologies.
Takeaways:
1) Setting the stage across the whole company for success
2) Identifying key players and navigating internal politics
3) Identifying the right goals, teams, leaders and tracking methodologies
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
More and more we’re seeing data that indicates we need increased focus on improving our clients’ experience with technical content. But, how do you know what to focus on and where to target first? Introducing a content analytics toolbox that we rolled out to our IBM Cloud content contributors. The toolbox includes a variety of tools that authors can use to identify what content to work on and how to measure content improvements.
This case study shows how we gained adoption of the use of the toolbox, as well as some concrete examples of the tooling and data.
Takeaways:
1) How do I know what to prioritize?
2) How can I prove my content is impacting the business?
3) What are others doing?
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Your customers demand reliable customer service and don’t have time to waste with poor self-serve support portals that contain less helpful content than they should. Many customer service agents suffer from a lack of good warrantied product information and spend a lot of time copying and pasting information from PDFs, emails, and websites. The technology they use seems to be in constant flux yet access to the information they need doesn’t seem to get that much better. There has got to be a better way.
What if there was a better medium for finding, using, and exchanging the highest value content in your organization? Microcontent is a basic building block of good product documentation. When it can be broken out of that content, it can be used in many ways to feed other documents, FAQs, emails, knowledge bases, and even chatbots. Microcontent is also an ideal level of granularity to contribute and curate new source information to be used across the enterprise. So what is it and how does it work to provide a better customer service experience? Attend this session to gain more insight into microcontent and how it can help.
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
With the growing number of DITA tools in the marketplace, one would think that it would be easy to justify using one of them to create and publish technical documents. By now, most managers have been exposed to the benefits of creating technical documentation according to some agreed upon set of documentation rules using DITA. However, understanding the benefits of this technical approach and being able to justify the expense of implementing it are two different things.
Many technical documentation managers are not able to articulate the long-term advantages of converting product information repositories to DITA in order to build a suitable business case to get such a project approved. This presentation outlines the many cost savings and revenue generation opportunities created by managing product information directly in DITA.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.
Marketing is no longer just a communications function. It’s increasingly about designing and delivering great customer experiences, starting with a prospect’s very first touchpoint. As a specific example of this, Scott examines the growing phenomenon of interactive content — content that our audience actively participates in, not merely passively consumes.
From games and quizzes to configurators and assessment tools, interactive content changes the way we engage prospects and breaks through the monotonous noise of passive white papers and webinars.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 1, 2015.
In topic-based information development environments such as DITA, the perennial question is “How large should a topic be?” While the topic-oriented approach has been shown to be suitable for authoring, only two levels of presentation are common: an entire set of content as a book (which may run into hundreds of pages), or component-by-component as authored.
The first (monolithic) presentation type is deficient because readers are not able to easily locate the information relevant to their situation. The second (fragmented) presentation type is deficient because it is not aligned with information-seeking behavior.
We have implemented a document structure of recursively nested information components that allows a web application to dynamically chunk information according to the reader’s behavior. At publication time, the source components are translated to granular chunks with an index, then further compiled into a recursive format that describes nesting and ancestry.
As with other presentation types, the information can be viewed in a single long document or addressed at the base component level. In addition, intermediate levels of presentation are possible. When the user selects an item from the table of contents, the component and all children components are displayed as a single chunk. Parent chunks are accessible through TOC and breadcrumb navigation that is defined in the document. After moving to a parent chunk, the starting point chunk is included as a child.
The varying levels of granularity allow for search results to more accurately present a document properly scoped to the user’s needs.
In addition, dynamic chunking supports well-documented “information foraging” behavior much better than the granular presentation approach, while preserving addressability that is lacking in monolithic presentation.
After exploring the advantages of dynamic chunking, Ben and Owen describe the publishing processes that transform the source DITA content to the dynamic presentation.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 1, 2015.
Content reuse is one of the key reasons for converting to a single source. But how do you know what the reuse potential really is? Because converting content formats is a major investment, you need to base your business case on real data.
You can find the data with these steps:
• Observation
• Comparison
• Analysis
This session gives you a methodology to learn how to determine the true opportunity for content reuse and quantify it for your business case.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 1, 2015.
It’s been 10 years since the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) was released as an OASIS standard. Join the chair of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee for this overview of where DITA has been and where it is going. She covers such topics as what OASIS is and how the DITA Technical Committee functions, the forthcoming DITA 1.3 release (Will it be worth the wait?), the lightweight DITA initiative (How much weight can a standard lose?), and tentative plans for DITA 2.0.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.
The Smart Ass™ Fan is the latest ceiling fan from Big Ass Fans®. Smart products are everywhere now, and they’re connected. Imagine a family of smart products and how much content could be/should be shared. These products can include mechanical, electrical and software parts AND content.
How will you deal with this explosive content requirement? This presentation takes a tour of the problem and explains what content engineering is …and how it can be used to create a sustainable content life cycle. Smart products need smart content.
This presentation was given at Information Development World on October 2, 2015.
We aim to create high-quality content. We really do. But, more-often-than-not, we fail. We understand that high-quality content must be clear, concise, and consistent in voice, tone, and terminology. We also know that it’s supposed to be easily findable, accessible, retrievable, and relevant those who need it—delivered when, where, and how they prefer it.
Crafting content that follows the rules (grammar, punctuation, linguistics) isn’t good enough. Our content also has to be helpful.
In this fast-paced talk, Scott Abel describes what it means to be helpful. You’ll discover how understanding the power of explanation
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Reimagining and reinventing customer support is expensive and hard. We hear that all the time. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, if you do it “right” it can be fairly cheap and fun. In this session, we will look at using a Design Thinking approach to imagine new realities, create prototypes quickly and cheaply, and iterate on this to create a roadmap to your transformation.
Perhaps most important is that we will discuss some of the freely available tools that will help and guide you through the Design Thinking landscape. Unlike most speeches, we will give you specific, tangible baby steps to take once you get back to your own work lives.
Three Takeaways
1) Understand the power of Design Thinking
2) Imagine what Design Thinking can do for you
3) Know what tools are available and where to find them
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Part 1: Assessing the Current State: Needs Analysis and Information Gathering
Learn how to assess the current state of your technical support content by looking through the lens of content strategy and content engineering.
Traditionally, technical details about products and services were considered to be post-purchase content. Technical information — the stuff contained in owner’s manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials — was provided to consumers only after they purchased a product or service. However, that’s changing as companies recognize that prospects often search the web for technical content to make purchasing decisions.
Think of a technical resource center as an online, one-stop shop for information about your products and services. Over time, and done well, a technical resource center can help you grow your business by attracting prospects, while simultaneously working to support and build loyalty and trust with existing customers.
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Part 1: Assessing the Current State: Needs Analysis and Information Gathering
Learn how to assess the current state of your technical support content by looking through the lens of content strategy and content engineering.
Traditionally, technical details about products and services were considered to be post-purchase content. Technical information — the stuff contained in owner’s manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials — was provided to consumers only after they purchased a product or service. However, that’s changing as companies recognize that prospects often search the web for technical content to make purchasing decisions.
Think of a technical resource center as an online, one-stop shop for information about your products and services. Over time, and done well, a technical resource center can help you grow your business by attracting prospects, while simultaneously working to support and build loyalty and trust with existing customers.
Presented November 27, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Moderated by Paul Perrotta with Panelists: Michael Rosinski of Astoria Software, Julie Newcome of Ultimate Software, Joe Gelb of Zoomin Software, Ray Gallon of The Transformation Society, Alex Masycheff of Intuillion, Ltd., and Anna N. Schlegel of Net App.
Budgets are tight. Times are lean. But you know you need to improve your Technical Resource Center. You could just hope it happens. Or, you could learn from the lessons of those who have gone before you. In this fast-paced panel discussion, Paul Perrotta will ask a panel of seasoned professionals for advice on how to pitch your ideas and secure funding. The panelists discuss the pitfalls to avoid, and they’ll share approaches, pro-tips, and advice to help you get what you need.
Ryan MacCarrigan’s keynote covers the growing role of Agile Development and Lean in the context of content development and delivery—where complex content is the “product” and the end goal is to shorten cycle times, eliminate waste, or improve measured business outcomes without sacrificing quality or accuracy.
The audience will learn:
How to structure strategic content development in a similar fashion to the Agile product development lifecycle
How the “Build-Measure-Learn” framework of Lean Startup fame can be applied to rapid content testing and delivery
How developing a Lean mindset can help content-driven organizations break down silos and “Fail Fast,” improving overall institutional knowledge.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
My colleague and I managed a team of 5 to 7 writers, using Agile processes to successfully overhaul a Help system for complex genetic sequencing software in just over six months. The approach uses 3 weekly sprints that gets each writer 1) analyzing and identifying gaps in existing content 2) writing and updating content, and then 3) peer editing and revising content. The sprints overlap so that every week each writer is actively writing, peer reviewing and editing content.
Facing deadlines for frequent quarterly releases, we used Excel spreadsheets and OneNote notebooks to record meeting notes, topic TOCs and assignments, rather than a more administrative intensive ticket-based system (such as JIRA). Writers, whose skill levels ranged from junior to senior, learned how to use the software through hour-long question-and-answer group sessions with SMEs.
Attend this session to learn how an agile writing process can help boost collaboration and increase comradeship amongst information developers; decrease the time spent with subject matter experts, and optimize content development.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Designing the content experience revolves around the quality and the quantity of content. Answering questions like what kind of content, how much of it, and where should it be located are prime in a content professional’s mind. In her talk, Eeshita will discuss and share the pillars of content user experience — both quality and quantity. The attendees will learn techniques and processes to enable quality and monitor quantity of valuable content.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Effective page design is often overlooked in the development of technical information. Studies have shown that the visual design of information has an immediate and lasting visceral impact on both credibility and usability. Good page design ensures that information is easy to find, read, understand, and remember. The science of human visual perception and attention provides a foundation for understanding traditional design elements and principles, and how they can be combined to ensure high-quality, effective information development.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Before you’re ready to answer your customers’ questions, you need to ask some of your own: Where is the information leaking out of my content? How can I capture the human intelligence that went into writing the information in the first place? Where does my information development process have too much friction?
Find out how asking and answering these questions can help support your information developers as they create understandable information and actionable intelligence for both humans and bots. Identify your information leaks and learn how to stop them. Learn how to remove friction to stop wasting people’s time and to transform your information development and delivery process. Create the future by leveraging your intellectual property.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Translation Commons is a nonprofit aiming to be an online one-stop community for all information relating to translation and localization. How do you organize content for an entire industry? How do you create a website structure that allows users to find the information they need, even when it’s a needle in a haystack?
Content planning or Information Architecture determines how information is displayed or accessed. For Translation Commons, planning took much longer than development and it was worth every second of it.
The audience will learn of various techniques and methodologies which will help them organize large sets of information.
Presented November 28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Workshop Part 2: Creating the Future State: Enterprise Content Creation, Structure and Distribution
Learn how to plan and implement a future state of enterprise content creation, structure, management, and delivery for a modern technical resource center.
Traditionally, technical details about products and services were considered to be post-purchase content. Technical information — the stuff contained in owner’s manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials — was provided to consumers only after they purchased a product or service. However, that’s changing as companies recognize that prospects often search the web for technical content to make purchasing decisions.
Think of a technical resource center as an online, one-stop shop for information about your products and services. Over time, and done well, a technical resource center can help you grow your business by attracting prospects, while simultaneously working to support and build loyalty and trust with existing customers.
Presented November 27-28, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
The NetApp content strategy team is driving a wide-reaching effort to simplify content creation, sharing, delivery, and content management systems reduction. Anna Schlegel will share how her team is leading an enterprise-wide effort to build a more connected content experience at NetApp with sponsorship at the CEO and SVP level across the entire organization.
In this presentation, attendees learn how to design a corporate content strategy, streamline the content ecosystem, obsolete unnecessary content, and formalize content governance. The key to this effort is selling the value proposition such as reduced cost, reduced complexity, and a better customer experience.
Anna will help you understand how to identify key players, navigate internal politics, and set the stage for content strategy success company-wide. You’ll leave knowing how to set the right goals, create teams, develop leaders, and utilize tracking methodologies.
Takeaways:
1) Setting the stage across the whole company for success
2) Identifying key players and navigating internal politics
3) Identifying the right goals, teams, leaders and tracking methodologies
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
More and more we’re seeing data that indicates we need increased focus on improving our clients’ experience with technical content. But, how do you know what to focus on and where to target first? Introducing a content analytics toolbox that we rolled out to our IBM Cloud content contributors. The toolbox includes a variety of tools that authors can use to identify what content to work on and how to measure content improvements.
This case study shows how we gained adoption of the use of the toolbox, as well as some concrete examples of the tooling and data.
Takeaways:
1) How do I know what to prioritize?
2) How can I prove my content is impacting the business?
3) What are others doing?
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Your customers demand reliable customer service and don’t have time to waste with poor self-serve support portals that contain less helpful content than they should. Many customer service agents suffer from a lack of good warrantied product information and spend a lot of time copying and pasting information from PDFs, emails, and websites. The technology they use seems to be in constant flux yet access to the information they need doesn’t seem to get that much better. There has got to be a better way.
What if there was a better medium for finding, using, and exchanging the highest value content in your organization? Microcontent is a basic building block of good product documentation. When it can be broken out of that content, it can be used in many ways to feed other documents, FAQs, emails, knowledge bases, and even chatbots. Microcontent is also an ideal level of granularity to contribute and curate new source information to be used across the enterprise. So what is it and how does it work to provide a better customer service experience? Attend this session to gain more insight into microcontent and how it can help.
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Mayo Clinic’s mobile app serves as both a resource for patients who depend on it for tasks like viewing lab results and making appointments and as a health engagement tool to keep the brand top-of-mind for anyone who might need Mayo Clinic services someday.
In this case study, find out how a Mayo Clinic team converted a huge library of health information to an engaging, mobile-friendly content experience. Learn how core content has been enhanced with hundreds of original visual and editorial pieces – built using a repeatable process geared for high-volume production. Explore how new features like mobile notifications and content search have addressed user needs while driving to new app downloads, now 1 million+ and counting.
Three Takeaways
1) How content can serve as an engagement tool while facilitating transactional tasks and resources
2) Simple curation and metadata strategies for delivering a seamless experience using multiple content sources
3) Tips on creating mobile-first content for short attention spans
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Do you see a problem that is so obvious that everyone should see it, but they don’t? Do you have great data about a pain point for your customers, but don’t know where to go with it? In this session, we’ll talk about project briefs — what they are, and how they can be an invaluable tool for building consensus and getting your stakeholders and teams on board.
In this session, you will learn:
1) How to pull together various data points into a cohesive project brief; 2) How to use a project brief to effectively present the problem/issue; 3) And, most importantly, why a project brief isn’t the right platform for solutioning.
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Building a conversational interface that people actually want to use can be tough a process. From understanding what users enter to providing logical responses, there’s a lot to create a successful experience. This presentation provides tips for designing conversational interfaces and the content that powers them. If you’re considering adding chatbots or voice-activated devices to your content delivery strategy, this session is right for you.
Takeaways
1) Tips for designing conversational interface
2) Tips for writing conversational content
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
Most chatbots are rule-based. A rule defines that if certain keywords occur in the user’s question, a certain piece of content should be displayed. For example, “if the question includes words ‘replace’ and ‘battery,’ show the topic about replacing a battery.”
While this method is easy and relatively cheap to implement, it covers only simple use cases. It may work perfectly well if the amount of content is small and it’s not frequently updated. But what about a case when the procedure of replacing a battery is different for different product models? Or what if it’s different depending on the user’s role, and there are multiple possible roles and their combinations? You’d have to explicitly add rules for each variation and instruct the chatbot about the questions the user should be asked when information required for a precise and relevant answer is missing in the user’s question.
On top of that, every time you add new content, you have to manually add new rules. In the long run, rule-based chatbots are expensive and difficult to maintain, if the amount of content is significant and it’s frequently updated.
Another approach is to build a knowledge map of the subject domain which would automatically guide the chatbot about the questions the user should be asked, automatically identify semantic metadata of the content, and map the metadata to the knowledge map. This approach would make the chatbot smarter while reducing the maintenance efforts and costs.
In this session, Alex talks about both approaches and sees which approach works better in different use cases.
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
It can be difficult to onboard users to new and complex interfaces and workflows. New research shows that images and video enhance understanding and retention of complex information and tasks and can even increase productivity, but software often changes quickly and requires regular updates and localization.
How can we leverage the power of visual communication without having to constantly localize new visual content? Simplified User Interface (SUI) helps you create powerful and useful images to help your users better understand your content while extending its shelf life and often eliminating the need for localization.
Presented November 29, 2018, at Quadrus Conference Center for Information Development World 2018.
The Secret to Engaging Modern Consumers: Journey Mapping and Personalization
In today's digital landscape, understanding the customer's journey and delivering personalized experiences are paramount. This masterclass delves into the art of consumer journey mapping, a powerful technique that visualizes the entire customer experience across touchpoints. Attendees will learn how to create detailed journey maps, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for optimization. The presentation also explores personalization strategies that leverage data and technology to tailor content, products, and experiences to individual customers. From real-time personalization to predictive analytics, attendees will gain insights into cutting-edge approaches that drive engagement and loyalty.
Key Takeaways:
Current consumer landscape; Steps to mapping an effective consumer journey; Understanding the value of personalization; Integrating mapping and personalization for success; Brands that are getting It right!; Best Practices; Future Trends
As the call for for skilled experts continues to develop, investing in quality education and education from a reputable https://www.safalta.com/online-digital-marketing/best-digital-marketing-institute-in-noida Digital advertising institute in Noida can lead to a a success career on this eve
The What, Why & How of 3D and AR in Digital CommercePushON Ltd
Vladimir Mulhem has over 20 years of experience in commercialising cutting edge creative technology across construction, marketing and retail.
Previously the founder and Tech and Innovation Director of Creative Content Works working with the likes of Next, John Lewis and JD Sport, he now helps retailers, brands and agencies solve challenges of applying the emerging technologies 3D, AR, VR and Gen AI to real-world problems.
In this webinar, Vladimir will be covering the following topics:
Applications of 3D and AR in Digital Commerce,
Benefits of 3D and AR,
Tools to create, manage and publish 3D and AR in Digital Commerce.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
In the digital age, businesses are inundated with tools promising to streamline operations, enhance creativity, and boost productivity. Yet, the true key to digital transformation lies not in the accumulation of tools but in strategically integrating the right AI solutions to revolutionize workflows. Join Jordache, an experienced entrepreneur, tech strategist and AI consultant, as he explores essential AI tools across three critical categories—Ideation, Creation, and Operations—that can reshape the way your business creates, operates, and scales.This talk will guide you through the practicalities of selecting and effectively using AI tools that go beyond the basics of today’s popular tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Midjourney, or Dall-E. For each category of tools, Jordache will address three crucial questions: What is each tool? Why is each one valuable to you as a business leader? How can you start using it in your workflow? This approach will not only clarify the role of these tools but also highlight their strategic value, making it perfect for business leaders ready to make informed decisions about integrating AI into their workflows.
Key Takeaways:
>> Strategic Selection and Integration: Understand how to select AI tools that align with your business goals and how to conceptually integrate them into your workflows to enhance efficiency and innovation.
>> Understanding AI Tool Categories: Gain a deeper understanding of how AI tools can be leveraged in the areas of ideation, creation, and operation—transforming each aspect of your business.
>> Practical Starting Points: Learn how you can start using these tools in your business with practical tips on initial steps and integration ideas.
>> Future-Proofing Your Business: Discover how staying informed about and utilizing the latest AI tools and strategies can keep your business competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Everyone knows the power of stories, but when asked to come up with them, we struggle. Either we second guess ourselves as to the story's relevance, or we just come up blank and can't think of any. Unlocking Everyday Narratives: The Power of Storytelling in Marketing will teach you how to recognize stories in the moment and to recall forgotten moments that your audience needs to hear.
Key Takeaways:
Understand Why Personal Stories Connect Better
How To Remember Forgotten Stories
How To Use Customer Experiences As Stories For Your Brand
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
SEO as the Backbone of Digital MarketingFelipe Bazon
In this talk Felipe Bazon will share how him and his team at Hedgehog Digital share our journey of making C-Levels alike, specially CMOS realize that SEO is the backbone of digital marketing by showing how SEO can contribute to brand awareness, reputation and authority and above all how to use SEO to create more robust global marketing strategies.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Enhancing a Luxury Furniture E-commerce Store with Expert Shopify ManagementSunTec India
SunTec India's expertise in Shopify store management has been a game-changer for a luxury furniture e-commerce business. Through meticulous optimization of product listings, strategic SEO practices, and an enhanced user experience, this case study details the successful outcomes of their collaboration, including increased traffic, higher conversion rates, and stronger brand presence.
Read more- https://shorturl.at/yl3MU
Friendly English and Successful Localization - John Collins
1. Strategies for Friendly English
and Successful Localization
John Collins!
Senior UX Content Strategist
www.linkedin.com/in/johncollins"
@jrc_collins
67. Translation
A faithful and accurate
adaptation of your text that
basically says the same
thing in another language.
http://wordtrans.com/2013/06/transcreation-vs-translation/
@jrc_collins
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68. Transcreation
An adaptation of your text with
the goal of evoking the same
reaction to your message from
readers in another language.
http://wordtrans.com/2013/06/transcreation-vs-translation/
@jrc_collins
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69. Translation
• Write a simplified English version. "
Create a second more natural version,
almost as its own localization.
@jrc_collins
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70. <!-- The “rewards” mentioned here are treasure chests
full of coins.-->
<simplified description>Use the hints we
have provided to create the correct sentence. If you
pronounce the sentence accurately, you will uncover a
square. Some squares conceal rewards. Try to collect as
many rewards as you can in the time limit.</simplified
description>
<localized description>Race to find buried treasure!
Use our clues to build the right sentence, and say it
correctly to dig up a plot. Maybe there's treasure; maybe
there's not. Collect as much as you can before time runs
out.</localized description>
@jrc_collins
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71. Transcreation
• Write the English you want.
• Add comments for translators.
@jrc_collins
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72. Transcreation
• Write the English you want.
• Add comments for translators.
Lots of comments!!
@jrc_collins
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73. <!-- TRANSLATOR: This comment contains detailed notes for the translation of the "description" string below.
* "Race to find buried treasure!" This is an imperative sentence that we want to sound fun. Completing the game tasks quickly
is important for achieving a good score, so "race" was chosen to suggest the time-sensitive nature of the game.
* "Use our clues to build the right sentence" The game interface will have icons or graphics on the x-axis and the y-axis. Those
icons or graphics are the "clues." We used the word "clue" because it carries some game connotations. The word "cue" or "hint"
could also be used, but we preferred "clue." The players will have to use those to create a sentence in their minds. For technological
reasons, it can't be just ANY sentence; it must match the sentence Rosetta Stone intends. The sentences are leveled based upon the
player's progress in Rosetta Course. See below for slightly more information.
* "say it correctly" The speech recognition is listening for the correct sentence and the correct pronunciation. If it doesn't
detect the correct items after a certain time period, the game will prompt the player by displaying the text of the expected sentence. If
it still doesn't get the correct answer after another certain time period, a native speaker will then speak the sentence. If it still doesn't
detect the correct speech from the player, that particular game piece will close and the player can select a new piece.
* "to dig up a plot" When the speech recognition detects a correct sentence and pronunciation, the game will see a quick
digging animation. If there's treasure, the game will indicate that with graphics and sound. If there's no treasure, that will also be
indicated with graphics and sound. The word "plot" suggests a plot, or section, of land, especially on a map. Players will see a map
with a 6-by-6 grid. We're using "plot" to indicate one of the 36 squares on the map. The word "plot" in English is kind of a play on
words, because it also suggests the concept of plotting something on a map (choosing a course). See note on rhyme below.
* "Maybe there's treasure; maybe there's not." This is a complex sentence to suggest that some squares (plots) will have
treasure, but not all of them will. You have two independent clauses in the English source separated by a semicolon. That construction
may not work in all translations; please do what is appropriate for your language. We use "there's" as a contraction of "there is" in
both clauses. We did purposely rhyme in English from "plot" in the previous sentence to "not" in this sentence. This was done to make
the English source a little more fun and game-like. We realize that the translations probably won't be able to rhyme; if they do, it will be
a nice bonus.
* "Collect as much as you can" This is an imperative in English. We used "collect" because it sounds like a gaming term in
English. Many games have items that the user needs to acquire to gain points, and that is the case in this game. We want this
sentence to sound fun, even though we've worded it as an imperative. The user is trying to "collect as much (treasure)" as they can.
They earn points for each treasure they find.
* "before time runs out" The game is a time-based game. The goal is to collect as much treasure as possible (by speaking
correctly and guessing which squares contain buried treasure).
* "Collect as much as you can before time runs out." We worded the entire sentence this way because we are trying to cover
multiple use cases. In one use case, the player is playing Solo (by themself), so getting a high score is the goal. A successful solo
player will quickly build the right sentences and say them correctly, and go through as many of the map squares (plots) as possible.
The other use case is a Duo game, where two players are playing together. Each one is trying to get a higher score than the other.
They will also have to quickly build the right sentences and say them correctly, but in this game, there is a clearly-defined winner (and
loser). We can't really say that in the description, because of the Solo player, who does not have a clearly-defined "win" state. -->
<description>Race to find buried treasure! Use our clues to build the right sentence, and say it correctly to dig up a plot. Maybe
there's treasure; maybe there's not. Collect as much as you can before time runs out.</description>
@jrc_collins
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