The Technical Publications team has been hard at work DITA-fying our topics. We are 80% through our reformatting our legacy topics. Of course, any new topics are DITA.
We discovered an interesting phenomenon:
The number of topics exploded.
The number of topics has grown simply because we separated our topics according to DITA type. Each topic is ONE type. ONE concept. ONE task. ONE reference.
Previously, a topic might include the conceptual information in the introduction, the steps to more than one task, and the field limitations within the task. We buried details and unintentionally made it difficult to find information. Topics were long, requiring scrolling or paging to access the information.
DITA changed that. By reformatting into smaller, more structured content, information is now easily accessible.
Easy on the Eyes
Our topics are shorter and more concise. There is more white space. The user is not overwhelmed with too much information, scrolling less. Users can find the answer to their question faster, which enables them to solve their problem faster.
Focused Content
Once we separated the information into topic types, and placed one idea in each topic, the content of each topic was focused. Concept topics explain “who,” “what,” and “why” a user would do a task. Task topics explain “how” and “when”. Reference topics detail the “how”. The information a user wants is easily found and understood.
User Experience Level
Users can access information according to their level of experience. New users read the concept topics before attempting the tasks and rely on the references. Experienced users skip the concepts, but use the tasks and reference as reminders. Mature users skip the concepts and tasks to use the references to verify field limitations.
When we reviewed the new format with our stakeholders, we received positive responses. The training team and support team are pleased to see how clean the help looks. Topics now correlate with training. Support can refer to specific topics when they walk customers through issues. Our team finds writing much easier also. With the structure so clearly defined, we can focus on the ONE piece of information that needs to be conveyed in the topic.
