April Meeting Recap:  Information Mapping

by Diane Russell, Student Liaison, WLU

Finding speakers who are both informative and interesting can be a challenge -- but our executive always comes through on this one. April's meeting featured Jim Purdy, a trainer of Information Mapping for Communicare. 

Differences Between Structured Writing and Technical Writing

Jim spoke on the chief differences between 'technical writing' and 'structured writing'. His first slide had everyone laughing; it featured a bulleted list of how to define technical writing. Along with the expected "providing specialist information for a non-specialist audience", Jim had also included the quip "documentation that no one would read by choice".

By contrast, the hallmarks of structured writing include:

• separation of content from format,
• turning prose content into 'modules',
• more 'bookmarks' for increased user choices, and
• usability for various media without having to re-work format.

Cognitive Psychology

Information-mapping is based on cognitive psychology, and is proven user-friendly. The best way to describe it is to think of text information in a paragraph, which has been re-worked into a table or graph for easier viewing. Jim gave the example of a paragraph in a manual which would describe a company's policy on 'casual dress days' for its employees. Picture a single paragraph containing a description of the policy, its effective date, and any exceptions. Structured writing would take this information and translate it to:

Thus, structured writing allows the reader to extract only the desired information without having to read through a lengthy document of interrelated text.

Advantages of Structured Writing

Jim highlighted other advantages of structured writing, including:

• increased comprehension by users
• better communication
• decreased production costs, as text/graphics can be re-used

One drawback was noted: companies must adapt the same formatting principles for all employees.

As a new graduate, I was eager to put this information to good use and found it helpful for a brochure I am working on for my Toastmasters group. Imagine doing this with all those university essays…

Discount Offer

As part of my presentation Thursday night, Jim Purdy would like to offer STC members a discount on their 3-day Information Mapping seminar "Developing Usable Content and Documentation" held at their Toronto facility in the west end (Gardner Expressway & South Kingsway).

STC members can attend one of their regularly scheduled Public Seminars and receive a  25% discount off the $2,350 + tax price ($1,762.50 + tax). Their Web site has the schedule for all their Public Seminars (the next seminar is scheduled for June 14-16) for a maximum of 12 individuals. However, if there is a demand, they can schedule as many seminars as there are willing STC members.

This discount does NOT apply to STC members who attend one of their Onsite Seminars (at your work place), nor does the discount apply to the Public Seminars held in Ottawa and Montreal. 

If our chapter organizes an information mapping workshop, the price per person would be even less. Why not let our Education Manager know if you would be interested. If there is enough interest, Information Mapping might be our annual February workshop?