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The use of eBooks and interactive multimedia as alternative forms of technical documentation

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SIGDOC '05: Proceedings of the 23rd annual international conference on Design of communication: documenting & designing for pervasive information

Pages 108 - 115

https://doi.org/10.1145/1085313.1085340

Published: 21 September 2005 Publication History

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Abstract

The use of eBooks and interactive multimedia in technical documentation is an emerging and important trend for delivering abstract and complex technical information that is enticing, engaging, and -most important of all- effective. With the substantial (and growing) number of documents available electronically, it is a non-trivial task for technical writers to even reach their target audience, let alone engage them. Both eBooks and interactive multimedia feature unique characteristics that serve two important functions: piquing the interest in the user, and aiding in the transmittal of complex technical information. Further, the use of eBooks and interactive multimedia in technical documentation helps to differentiate from the myriad other technical documents. At the IBM Toronto Software Laboratory, the Media Design Studio (MDS) works collaboratively with the information development community to produce graphics and diagrams for technical documentation. This paper explores alternative forms of IBM technical documentation in the form of two case studies-one an eBook and the other a Macromedia Flash-based interactive multimedia presentation. Both projects were co-developed by the writers and graphic designers, with a mandate to create a rich, graphical approach to entice and engage users to read and understand complex technical concepts.

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Cited By

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Zaytsev VLämmel R(2010)A unified format for language documentsProceedings of the Third international conference on Software language engineering10.5555/1964571.1964590(206-225)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1964571.1964590
Pride-Thorne CMurphy SSeenauth SMehlenbacher BProtopsaltis AWilliams ASlattery S(2009)Probing the use of charts and graphs in technical documentation through analysis and pragmatic collaborationProceedings of the 27th ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1621995.1622036(205-212)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1621995.1622036
Donney JMurphy SSacre CScholz AWalters DO'Neill HAparicio MCosta CProtopsaltis A(2008)Globalization of graphicsProceedings of the 26th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1456536.1456554(87-92)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1456536.1456554
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The use of eBooks and interactive multimedia as alternative forms of technical documentation
1. Human-centered computing

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SIGDOC '05: Proceedings of the 23rd annual international conference on Design of communication: documenting & designing for pervasive information

September 2005

176 pages

ISBN:1595931759

DOI:10.1145/1085313

General Chair:
Scott Tilley
Florida Institute of Technology, USA
,
Program Chair:
Robert M. Newman
Coventry University, UK

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Published: 21 September 2005

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SIGDOC05: ACM 23rd Annual International Conference on Documentation

September 21 - 23, 2005

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Zaytsev VLämmel R(2010)A unified format for language documentsProceedings of the Third international conference on Software language engineering10.5555/1964571.1964590(206-225)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1964571.1964590
Pride-Thorne CMurphy SSeenauth SMehlenbacher BProtopsaltis AWilliams ASlattery S(2009)Probing the use of charts and graphs in technical documentation through analysis and pragmatic collaborationProceedings of the 27th ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1621995.1622036(205-212)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1621995.1622036
Donney JMurphy SSacre CScholz AWalters DO'Neill HAparicio MCosta CProtopsaltis A(2008)Globalization of graphicsProceedings of the 26th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1456536.1456554(87-92)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1456536.1456554
Neff FKehoe APitt I(2007)User modeling to support the development of an auditory help systemProceedings of the 10th international conference on Text, speech and dialogue10.5555/1776334.1776388(390-397)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1776334.1776388
Kehoe ANeff FPitt IRussell GNovick DSpinuzzi C(2007)Improvements to a speech-enabled user assistance system based on pilot study resultsProceedings of the 25th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1297144.1297153(42-47)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2007
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1297144.1297153
Neff FKehoe APitt I(2007)User Modeling to Support the Development of an Auditory Help SystemText, Speech and Dialogue10.1007/978-3-540-74628-7_51(390-397)Online publication date: 2007
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74628-7_51
Kehoe APitt IHuang SPierce RStamey J(2006)Designing help topics for use with text-to-speechProceedings of the 24th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1166324.1166362(157-163)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1166324.1166362
Williams AMoore MHuang SPierce RStamey J(2006)Designing communicationProceedings of the 24th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication10.1145/1166324.1166338(59-63)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1166324.1166338

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Sequence diagram presentation in technical documentation

Adobe InDesign CS5.5 for Creating eBooks: Learn by Video

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