Project overview
Audience
The primary audience for the set of web sites is purchasers of technical communications services. Each web site will be an 'informative shop window' (thanks Marian!).
The primary motivation is to interest and inform purchasers. We include links to existing information that is useful for purchasers. Essentially, we do the searching for the reader, and provide an index to the best information on the web, rather than writing lots of original material.
Malcolm Beaumont explains the rationale, "I'm reminded of a very depressing interview I went to ten years ago for a contract position. It was soon obvious that the interviewer knew nothing about technical writing. When I got home I wrote an article that was aimed at people like him. A few years later, that article got me a 2-year contract."
Development strategy
Each web site has a project manager. The overall look and feel of the web sites is consistent, but within that constraint, the project manager decides the content.
The web sites will use HTML and CSS only, and will conform to W3C standards:
- HTML validation tool: http://validator.w3.org/
- CSS validation tool: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html
For now, we are putting effort into creating web sites for purchasers of technical communication services. However, someone who enters (say) 'technical writing' as a search term might be:
- A purchaser of tech writing services (our primary target)
- A potential tech writing student
- A technical communicator looking for information about tech writing
We already have 'technical-writing.co.uk' for buyers, so we could use 'technical-writer.co.uk' for one of the other audiences. On the home page of each web site are links to other sites in the set. That's for the future.
Future possibilities
One person suggested that a wiki or blog approach could help to enhance the content of a website, as well as increasing interest in it. She offered to provide 'stems' on technical editing and instructional design.
One person mentioned the recent ISTC_D discussion about line lengths. He recalled that people had asked a discussion group for material they could put before a client or boss to justify an opinion. Such material would be ideal for these sites. He thought that this type of information could also benefit from two or more authors collaborating on an individual piece. It would also be possible to do mini-research among all contributors to the project. Other topics were scrolling and use of lists.
Standards
These are the standards that we use:
- HTML 4.01: http://www.w3.org/tr/html401/
- CSS version 2: http://www.w3.org/tr/REC-CSS2/
The major browsers do not yet implement fully the CSS standard, but our design is relatively straighforward, and the appearance of our web sites should be acceptable in all the major browsers.
Resources
These pages are full of excellent background information on web design issues:
- Sun Microsystems web design standards: www.sun.com/webdesign/
- IBM's web accessibility guidelines: www-306.ibm.com/able/guidelines/web/accessweb.html