Today, users are searching for an answer when stuck in product usage. Nobody is reading the manual methodically. If your users are having trouble in finding information in your manuals, your business may be facing a risk of losing its customers. This risk is increasing since the time users have to spend on searching is limited or even decreasing and the amount of information to search in is constantly increasing.

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SeSAM is a design framework for technical communicators. Check out SeSAM (now on YouTube) if you are lacking an information modelling strategy on how to determine what type of information end users need and how to organize and classify content for findability; in practice how to design end user deliverables. SeSAM can complement your DITA strategy.

SeSAM is now unlocked on YouTube. For more info see: http://www.youtube.com/user/jonatanlundin

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Of course you say “no”. But, how do you know if your documentation is read and used (and helps the user)? My experience is that a lot of companies create and manage content that nobody reads. Nobody reads due to two reasons: users can’t find it (even if it is relevant) or because the content is judged to be irrelevant, when skimming the text.

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The first thing a user does when viewing a topic found in a search system, is not to read it, but evaluate if it contains the answers the user is looking for. How can we help our users determine if the found topic contains the answers? Let’s explore the how, but let’s first take a look at the search process in detail.

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Join us at NLDITA 2011 – 1st of june in Utrecht– You will meet and get to know technical authors of product and softwaredocumentation, knowledge workers, people from publishing, eLearning and eBookdeveloping companys, localization vendors, XML developers and many othersprofessionally occupied with documentation and publication processes.

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