This document discusses microcontent, which are short summaries that make content easier to scan. Microcontent can be reused across different systems like search engines, help systems, chatbots and voice assistants. The document provides examples of microcontent and how it can be authored and structured for reuse, including using JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa. It also discusses how microcontent will impact technical communication and how tools like MadCap Flare can be used to create microcontent.

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Microcontent Authoring
Scott DeLoach – scott@clickstart.net ClickStart – www.clickstart.net
Microcontent-based authoring makes content easier to scan, and it increases user satisfaction
and success. Microcontent can also be reused and accessed by other systems, including
embedded user assistance, context-sensitive help, chatbots, and voice-based search. Google
calls these microcontent blocks "snippets," and they are a key, highly visible aspect of Google
search results. In this session, Scott will review real-world examples of microcontent and discuss
how it is used and created.
What is microcontent?
"Microcontent should be an ultra-short abstract of its associated macrocontent."
- Jakob Nielsen, 1998
Why is microcontent important?
▪ Short attention spans
▪ Targeted
▪ Focused
▪ Summarizes/entices
▪ Reusable and curatable
How microcontent will impact technical communication
Single sourcing
▪ Content reuse
▪ Integration
Writing style/architecture
▪ Microcontent-based vs topic-based
Examples
▪ Historical examples
▪ Help search results
▪ Google's structured data page types
Google Structured Data Types
FAQ
▪ A page with question and answers.
▪ Does not allow users to submit alternative answers.

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Q&A
A page where users can submit answers to a question or multiple questions.
How to
▪ Walks users through a set of steps to complete a task.
▪ Can feature video, images, and text.
▪ Only available on mobile devices, not desktop.
How microcontent can be reused
▪ Embedded UA
▪ Context-sensitive help
▪ Chatbots
▪ Voice-based search
o Android (Google Assistant) - Google
o macOS/iOS (Siri) - Google, Yelp, ...
o Windows (Cortana) - Bing
o Echo (Alexa) - Alexa Answers
How to create microcontent
Search only: MadCap Flare and other authoring tools
Google integration:
▪ JSON-LD (recommended)
▪ Microdata
▪ RDFa
How – MadCap Flare
▪ Create Micro Content file (Home > Create Micro Content)
▪ Type a Phrase
▪ Add the matching content (the "Response")
How – JSON-LD (recommended)
What is it?
▪ JavaScript markup in a <script> tag inside the page head or body.
▪ Can be added dynamically.
Example
{
"@context": "https://json-ld.org/contexts/person.jsonld",
"@id": "http://example.com/Robert_Smith",
"name": "Robert Smith",
"born": "1959-04-21",
"spouse": "http://example.com/Mary_Poole"
}

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How – Microdata
What is it?
▪ Open-community HTML specification
▪ Used to nest structured data within page head or body
▪ Uses HTML tag attributes
Example
<div>
<div itemtype="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource" 
itemid="http://example.com/Robert_Smith" itemscope>
<meta itemprop="http://schema.org/birthDate" content="1959-04-21" />
<meta itemprop="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name" content="Robert Smith" />
<link itemprop="http://schema.org/spouse" href="http://example.com/Mary_Poole" />
</div>
</div>
How – RDFa
What is it?
▪ HTML5 extension that uses HTML tag attributes
▪ Can be used inside the page head or body
Example
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
prefix="
foaf:http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/
schema: http://schema.org/
rdf: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
xsd: http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#
rdfs: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"</div>
<div typeof="rdfs:Resource" about="http://example.com/Robert_Smith"</div>
<div rel="schema:spouse" resource="http://example.com/Mary_Poole"</div>
<div property="foaf:name" content="Robert Smith"</div>
<div property="schema:birthDate" datatype="xsd:date" content="1959-04-21"></div>
</div>
</div>
About the presenter
Scott DeLoach is the Founder of ClickStart, where he provides training and consulting for
MadCap Flare, embedded user assistance, JavaScript/jQuery, CSS, and HTML5. He has
been developing browser-based help systems for 25+ years, and he has received four
Best in Show awards for his work from STC.
Scott is a certified Flare and Doc-to-Help instructor, and he is the author of MadCap
Flare: The Definitive Guide, CSS to the Point, and HTML5 to the Point. For more
information about Scott's books see www.lulu.com/clickstart.
You can reach Scott at www.clickstart.net or by email at scott@clickstart.net.

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