Understanding Documents: A Conceptual Framework

Professor David K. Farkas

Puget Sound Chapter, STC

October 19, 2004farkas@u.washington.eduSlides available at: http://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/framework

Copyright © David K. Farkas 2004. All rights reserved.

Seven Concepts Central toDesigning Documents

• Context

• Author/Intent

• Genre

• Medium

• Format

• Behaviors

• Text

The Conceptual Framework

• Context

• Author/Intent

• Genre

• Medium

• Format

• Behaviors

• Text

Text

Author/ Intent

The Complete Framework

Author/Intent

Text

BehaviorsFormat

Graphics

Multimedia

Text

Detail: The Document

What is the Purpose of this Conceptual Framework?

• Clarifies relationships among key concepts.

• Provides a useful checklist (heuristic) for design and evaluation.

• Enables us to anticipate challenging or complex aspects of a design.

Limitations of this Framework

• It applies only to text-based documents.

Behaviors

Text

Audio

Gra

ph

ics

Mo

tion

FormatBehaviors

Format

Graphics

Multimedia

Text

Context

Defining “Context”

• Context refers to the human, social, and societal dimensions surrounding every document.

Lessons about Context—1

• The most important context is the audience, in particular their

– Background knowledge

– Attitudes and sensibilities

– Information needs, tasks, and responsibilities

– The communication technologies they employ

Lessons about Context—2

• Other important contexts are these:

– The organizational environment in which the document is created

– Documents related to this one

– The relevant business and regulatory environment

– The linguistic environment

Context Checklist

1. Are you fully aware of all the contexts relevant to the document you are creating?

Author/Intent

Defining “Author” and “Intent”

• The author is the creator of the document envisioned as a complex social agent.

• The intent is what an author and/or organization hopes to achieve by creating the document.

Lessons about Author/Intent—1

• Authors do not pump out information. Meaning is “negotiated” through complex interactions with various contexts.

Lessons about Author/Intent—2

• Intentions are usually complex.

– Persuade the client to renew the contract

– Gain credit within my organization

– Make sure I acknowledge what I borrowed from Susan

• All parts of the document must work together to carry out your intentions.

Author/Intent Checklist

1. Are your intentions realistic?

2. Are you paying attention to all relevant contexts? Are you letting their voices speak to you?

3. Do all parts of the document work together to achieve your intentions?

Genre

Defining “Genre”

• A genre is a document category.

• Every genre has (1) a particular purpose (or purposes) and (2) recognizable features.

– Is the resume a genre?

– Is the business letter a genre?

– Is the Ecommerce website a genre?

Lessons about Genre—1

• Every document belongs to one or more genres.

• The choice of genre is largely driven by the author’s intentions. Writers begin with a genre in mind.

Lessons about Genre—2

• Readers cannot make sense of a document without reference to its genre(s).

• Genres evolve, blend, and even fade away.

Genre Checklist

1. If you are genre-bending, do you understand the underlying genres?

2. If you are genre-bending, will your audience “get it” and accept it?

Genre bending in advertising

Genre bending in user assistance

Medium

Defining “Medium”

• A document’s medium is the means by which we share knowledge and experience over time and distance.

Lessons about Media—1

• Media are defined by their

– Modes of communication (text, graphics, motion, audio)

– Features (user controls presentation, etc.)

– Underlying technology

– Business model

– Social role

Lessons about Media—2

• A medium can communicate multiple genres.

• The same genre often crosses media.

Lessons about Media—3

• Media evolve, compete, and take on capabilities of competing media (“convergence”).

• Older media die out very slowly—e.g., the scroll.

Medium Checklist

1. Are you using the most appropriate medium for your document—print vs. on-screen.

2. Are you planning to move your document across media. If so, will this work? What changes will be necessary? What will be the benefits and drawbacks?

Moving a genre to a new mediumwww.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-4/icst-4.html

Format

Defining “Format”

• Format refers to the use of techniques, primarily visual, that direct the user’s attention and draw distinctions.

Lessons about Format—1

• We can distinguish between microformats and macroformats.

– Microformats are specific techniques used in many contexts, such as a hanging indent.

– Macroformats are coordinated sets of microformats.

Information Mapping™. A macroformat suitable for several genres in two media.

Lessons about Format—2

• Formats very often cross media.

• Certain formats are genre specific.

• Formats evolve.

Evolution of birding field guides(Allen, Bateman & Delin)

Format Checklist

1. Is your formatting appropriate for your genre? Does it help to identify the genre?

2. Do you have enough formatting? Too much?

3. Do you really need a behavior? For example, a wizard rather than a flowchart.

Behaviors

Defining “Behaviors”

• Document behaviors are operations—primarily computer operations—that further communication.

– Hyperlinks, ALT tags

– Expanding online tables of context

– Search

– Etc.

Lessons about Behaviors—1

• Behaviors differ in their power. For example, ALT tags vs. personalization.

• Many behaviors are analogous to formatting. For example, wizards are powerful flowcharts, expandable online TOCs are more powerful than print TOCs.

A tree control TOC

Lessons about Behaviors—2

• We can distinguish between microbehaviors and macrobehaviors.

• Some online genres are defined by macrobehaviors—e.g., CBT and online shopping sites.

• Some development tools specify macrobehaviors—Acrobat Distiller, Microsoft’s help compilers.

Lessons about Behaviors—3

• Books have minimal behaviors.

• Certain books have special behaviors.

Behaviors of pop-up books

MagicBook, a book with VR behaviors(Billinghurst, Kato, and Poupyrev)

Behaviors Checklist

1. Do the behaviors of your document fit the genre?

2. Do your behaviors have the correct functionality? Are you overpowered? Are you underpowered?

Do We Need This Behavior?

Many PowerPoint Decks Are Overpowered

Text

Defining “Text”

• Text is meaning encoded through written language.

Lessons about Text

• Text is written to carry out intentions.

• We encode meaning into a text through a vast number of rhetorical choices.

• We must consider the context, genre, medium, format, and behaviors as we create text.

• Many text-based documents include graphics and multimedia.

Text Checklist—1

1. Is the document’s text in the appropriate language or languages?

2. Is it linguistically competent?

3. Is it orderly and does it follow conventions?

4. Is the authorial intentions well conceived? Is there a sound strategy for achieving them?

Text Checklist—2

5. Does each part of the document follow the strategy?

6. Are the style and rhetorical stance appropriate?

7. Is there adequate graphical and multimedia support?

What Is the Purpose of this Conceptual Framework?

Clarifies relationships among key concepts.

Provides a useful checklist (heuristic) for design and evaluation.

• Enables us to anticipate challenging or complex aspects of a design.

What are the major challenges in creating these documents?

Context-sensitive help?

Crabby Office Lady articles?

Scott McCloud’s Web-based comics?

The “article” genre in user assistance

Online comics

The End

Reference

• Allen, Patrick, John Bateman, and Judy Delin, “Genre and Layout Design in Multimodal Documents: Towards an Empirical Account,” American Association for Artificial Intelligence Fall Symposium on Using Layout for the Generation, Analysis, or Retrieval of Documents, Cape Cod, Autumn 1999.http://www.gem.stir.ac.uk/newframe.html

Reference

• Billinghurst, M., Kato, H. and Poupyrev, I. (2001). The MagicBook - Moving Seamlessly between Reality and Virtuality. Computer Graphics and Applications, 21(3), 2-4.http://www.hitl.washington.edu/publications/r-2002-29/r-2002-29.pdf .

Older media die out very slowly.

Medium