November Chapter Meeting Report

Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC January/February 2004	Meeting Report: November 2003

	by Nan Breedlove EBSTC Secretary
About the Speaker	Joyce Southward works for Information Mapping, a company headquartered in Massachusetts with branch offices across the United States. The company is represented in 31 countries worldwide, with solutions in many languages.
How to Get From Here to There? Try Information Mapping	“Information used to be like fine wine. Now it’s like crabgrass,” proclaimed Joyce Southward, Instructor and Consultant for Information Mapping, at the November EBSTC meeting. “Readers are suffering,” she added. The cure? Information mapping, an analytical and organizational documentation method that provides easy access to the right information in a consistent manner. According to Southward, the consequences of not using information mapping include poor decision making, errors and inefficiencies, reduced productivity, and high costs for training and creating reams of documentation that the user doesn’t want to read.
Elements of Information Mapping	Information mapping is the brainchild of Robert Horn, who first developed it between 1965 and 1967. At a high level, this truly logical method requires the writer to define, design, and then develop the documentation. In the definition phase, the writer considers the purpose and scope, analyzes the audience, defines the content, and resolves the technology issues. Southward noted that audience analysis is the step most frequently omitted by subject matter experts. Good audience analysis includes considering the roles and responsibilities of users, their experience, what they need to do, what they need to know, and user access and requirements. When defining the content, it is important to assess what information is really needed. This requires the writer to ask questions that the user would normally ask. The result of the definition phase is a blueprint for the document, including the information types, design principles, and modular units. Information mapping is based on two core concepts: information type and information block. Traditionally, the paragraph has been viewed as an information block. However, it has numerous limitations. There are no standards for chunking, relevance, labeling, or consistency. Horn discovered that modular units that included only one information type and that complied with design principles were the most efficient way to deliver information.
Information Types and Blocks	Information can be reduced to six types: Process—Why do I do it? Procedure—How do I do it? Principle—What are the rules, requirements, cautions, warnings? Concept—What is it? How do I define the terms? Structure—What does it look like? Fact—What is true? After dividing the information according to type, the writer can then determine what the most effective visual presentation would be. Southward pointed out that SMEs, who know the product well, find it difficult to see the difference between a procedure and a process. The next critical element of information mapping is the information block, which is one main idea expressed as a sentence(s), list, table, graphic, or multimedia unit. The final map is constructed from these units. For example, in a procedure, an information block is a single step. One big advantage of thoroughly analyzing content, assigning the information types, and dividing content into information blocks is that you do not need to know the structure of the final document before starting to write. The basic units of the information map are an overview, topic(s), and information blocks. Once you have established the types and blocks and have written the overview, the proprietary software developed by Southward’s company, Information Mapping, formats the content according to the hierarchy that the writer assigns. The system ensures consistency in delivery and presentation.
Uses and Benefits	Southward observed that information mapping is useful for a wide variety of communication means: Email, voicemail, and memos Presentations Manuals Training Web sites Information mapping benefits not only the end user, but also the communicator. The end user spends less time reading, easily understands procedures and concepts, makes fewer errors, and ultimately makes better decisions. The communicator can begin writing sooner, maintain information more easily, comply with documentation standards, and develop effective training. All of these positive factors have the added benefit of improving the morale of the writing staff. Southward noted that most of her training sessions target SMEs because often firms do not see the value of technical communicators. Hence, SMEs have to provide the documentation for their products. SMEs who believe that design specifications constitute the best documentation for the end user frequently require nothing less than conversion—or coercion—to accept the value of information mapping. Southward told of one occasion when the supervisor visited an information mapping seminar that he had sent his SMEs to. When one of the SMEs challenged Southward and said that he would not use information mapping, the supervisor took him off the project. Southward observed that as technical communicators, members of STC have probably been using some information mapping techniques for a long time, so speaking to those gathered at the November meeting was rather like preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, her topic, which received many votes on the recent EBSTC survey, was enlightening and well received by the membership. For further details visit Information Mapping web site.

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