Chapter 5. Product content

Pushed by the need to develop multiple versions of the same information, in multiple languages, in multiple channels, and on tight deadlines, the technical communication industry developed content reuse strategies in the early 1990s.

The technical communication industry calls reuse “single sourcing,” which is a method of reusing content where content is written once, stored in a single source location, and reused many times.

Technical communicators have a long track record of multichannel delivery that enterprise and digital publishers can learn from.

The evolution of reuse in technical publications

As the technical communication industry matured, it discovered how to reuse content in different ways.

Multiple channels, multiple copies

Content was made available in multiple channels (for example, print and HTML help). Content was written for one channel and then typically a copy was made for additional channels. The content had to be reformatted for each channel. Little attempt was made to differentiate the content or the presentation of the content to accommodate differences in platform and usage. If the content was modified to fit the channel or to address the fact that online information is used differently than paper-based information, the materials became quite different and were not single sourced (updates had to be made to two sources).

This is similar to the situation faced by many organizations today as they try to convert their content from print to eBooks or from traditional Web to mobile Web.

Single-source publishing

Technical communicators stopped writing long, monolithic documents and started writing content as stand-alone topics that could be published to both print and HTML formats. Vendors created help authoring tools (HAT) to support this process and to eliminate the need to have one copy of the content formatted for print and another format for the Web. These tools resulted in single-source publishing.

Customized content

At the beginning, single sourcing meant identical content and multiple channels, but as authors became concerned about the effectiveness of identical content used in multiple channels, they moved to customized content. This type of content is customized to meet the needs of the customer, the type of content to be developed, and the channel. Content is deliberately built for customized output from the single source to meet specific audience needs or output requirements. Authors select from topics to create customized content (for example, different customers or products).

Although content is customized, it does not mean that the content is rewritten for each usage. Rather, sub-elements (for example, greater or lesser detail, and illustrations of screens in the paper document, but not in the help materials) are used where appropriate.

This form of single sourcing produced much more effective and usable materials, but was also time-consuming.

Dynamic content

With dynamic content, information is assembled only when it is requested. It exists as a series of components that are assembled in response to user requests or requirements. Customers identify required content, or a user profile automatically identifies the requirements and delivers the appropriate content.

This type of reuse does not rely on the author to build the document, but it does rely on effective content models that can predict how to provide the appropriate information at the right time. And it relies on technology. Content can be automatically assembled and delivered to the Web, or a request could be made for just-in-time printing based on a custom configuration.

Dynamic content is still largely a Web-only solution; product content is only now starting to move to mobile.

Two directions (structure vs. community)

The industry soon began to split into two different directions: one moving towards structured XML-based content for print and user assistance materials while the other moved towards wikis and community interaction.

Structured content using DITA

Realizing that it was still too much work to create and format content for multiple channels, many technical publications teams have adopted structured reusable content using the DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) XML standard. DITA is an open content standard that defines a common structure for content that promotes the consistent creation, sharing, and reuse of content. In addition to the DITA standard, OASIS, the standards organization responsible for the growth and maintenance of DITA, provides a free publishing engine that supports the publishing of DITA-based content to online user assistance and print. For more information on DITA, refer to Chapter 19, “The role of XML.”

The basic DITA content model can support a wide range of content requirements, but if the content models you design don’t map exactly to DITA, you can customize the DITA model using a process called specialization. However, with the power of DITA comes complexity. The complexity is inherent in the ways in which authors interact with DITA and the power that it provides authors for creating and managing reusable content. OASIS has recognized this issue and is working towards the simplification of DITA. In addition, software vendors have taken on the challenge to create XML editors that hide DITA under a friendly user interface.

One of the challenges of DITA is that the free publishing engine does not publish to channels that support the social Web; however, vendors are filling this gap as well.

Communities, wikis, and the social Web

The task of creating ever-increasing volumes of content to document every possible method in which a customer may use a product is becoming unsustainable. Some technical communicators have moved towards the use of wikis and the social Web. Content begins with the technical communicator but is then opened up to the online community where experts share insights, tips, and best practices.

The wiki provides a better customer experience and increases the breadth and depth of available information, but the content is often locked into the wiki with no easy way to get it out and publish that content to additional formats. This is not unlike the issues of content locked in print or any other format.

Marrying the intelligence of DITA with the social Web

Content does not have to remain locked in wikis and DITA does not have to remain isolated from the social Web; intelligent content (which is not limited to one purpose, technology, or output) can bridge both worlds.

Product content can be developed using DITA best practices:

• Modular, reusable content

• Well-structured content

• Content separate from format (content free of styles, layout, or device-specific information)

• Rapid delivery to multiple channels

After it’s created, content can be pushed to the wiki where it can be augmented by customer input. The customer experience is enhanced through:

• Multiple flexible organizations of content (for example, tasks, problems, and solutions)

• Search for information based on categories

• Access to rich media (video, simulations, and audio)

• Selecting the best and most useful customer information and sharing it with other customers (curation)

Customer content is not locked in the wiki; the most highly rated or the most frequently viewed customer content can be transferred back into the DITA environment for use in augmenting the core content.

DITA and dynamic personalized content

DITA can also be used to facilitate dynamic delivery of personalized content to provide intelligent content on the back end and specifically targeted customer content on the front end.

Modular DITA-based content can be easily assembled on the fly to meet customer needs. Once the content is extracted from the content management system (CMS), the content is transformed into traditional HTML for ease of customer viewing and use. Or the content could be accessed by a mobile app and similarly rendered on the fly to the mobile device.

Customers can comment on the content, providing feedback loops back into the source content.

Mobile

The explosion of mobile devices is also changing the way technical communicators share content. No longer can they assume that customers will access their product content in a PC-sized browser or in a printed manual. More and more customers want access to content on tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices.

It’s a relatively simple exercise to convert modular structured content for mobile with the addition of stylesheets that optimize the content for a given device.

Augmented reality

Technical communicators are going beyond text and simple graphics by creating three-dimensional renditions of their content. It’s no longer necessary to produce manuals or provide a product CD with consumer products. For example, a customer whose printer has a paper jam can point the camera in their smartphone at the printer and have the image overlaid with an interactive display showing how to clear the paper jam.

Augmented reality systems are also being used to create service documentation for cars and large medical devices.

The opportunities are exciting as technical communicators learn how to integrate this form of delivery into their unified content strategy.

The role of a unified content strategy

Technical communicators have a long track record in the creation of a unified content strategy and intelligent content. While their strategies are more complex than most, their content is future-proofed and they can easily adapt their content to new devices yet to be designed.

In addition, enterprise and digital publishers can follow in the footsteps of technical communicators and move into the world of content reuse, secure in the knowledge that the processes and systems are proven and successful.

Summary

Technical communicators have a long track record of multichannel delivery that enterprise and digital publishers can learn from. As the technical communication industry matured, it discovered how to reuse content in different ways:

• Multiple channels, multiple copies

• Single-source publishing

• Customized content

• Dynamic content

The industry soon began to split into two different directions: one moving towards structured XML-based content for print and user assistance materials while the other moved towards wikis and community interaction. However, the two communities are now moving together to marry the intelligence of DITA, XML standard and wikis, communities and the social Web.

Because technical communicators have moved to structured, reusable content, their content is future-proofed and they can easily adapt their content to new devices yet to be designed.