communication department

Volume XIX Number 10

Events

Approximately five hundred people around the world participated in the card sort exercise on World Usability Day 2006, held November 14, according to Rahel Bailie, co-chair of STC's World Usability Day Committee. Participants represented six of the seven continents; only Antarctica was not represented. Slightly more than half of the card sort participants were from the U.S., with strong participation from the U.K., Canada, the Netherlands, and Israel. Participants ranged from high school students to retirees, from minimal to heavy weekly Internet users. The only predominant commonality was the type of work—only about two dozen participants did something other than an indoor desk job.

Card sorting is a common analysis technique used to group objects in order to understand how users categorize information. Card sorting is often used by information architects and usability professionals to find latent structure among menu items, Web pages, and the like. Participants logged onto a Web site that was active on November 14, completed a brief survey, and then conducted the card sort, which focused on how different users categorize weather-related terms. Users were given lists of these terms and asked to create names for the categories under which they would group them.

The card sort was conducted in two languages, English and Farsi, and the two sets of data amalgamated. Over the next few weeks, the results will be analyzed for similarities and differences in how participants categorized these weather-related terms. Bailie explained that weather was chosen for the sort because while it is universal, it is likely that different users will apply their personal experiences and connotations with weather-related terms, leading to a varied assortment of data.

Once these data are compiled, World Usability Day volunteers will be publicly sharing the results, so be on the lookout for more information.

To conduct a sample card sort of your own, visit websort.net.

Attention Newsletter Editors and Webmasters:

Please visit the photo gallery at STC's Communication Department Web site for photos of conference opening speaker Simon Singh and conference closing speaker Ze Frank. Singh is STC's 2007 Honorary Fellow and an author, journalist, and television producer. Frank is a high-tech humorist.

December 6, 2006 WEBINAR
Maggie Haenel will present an STC Web-telephone seminar, "Creating Training that Sticks," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. The seminar will focus on how adults learn and what makes them remember information. For more information or to register for the seminar, please visit stc.webex.com.

January 17, 2007 WEBINAR
Neil Perlin will host an STC Web-telephone seminar, "The X Factor—From HTML to XHTML," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. The seminar will address how and why XHTML has come to be so popular, and how it works at the code level. Participants will learn how XHTML differs from HTML and XML, what its code looks like, how to convert files from other formats to XHTML, and what tools can be used to do so. For more information or to register for the seminar, please visit stc.webex.com.

January 31, 2007 WEBINAR
Elaine Wisniewski and Steven Hall will present an STC Web-telephone seminar, "ANSI Z535.6-A New Standard for Safety Information in Product-accompanying Literature," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. Participants will learn about a new national standard for presenting safety messages in owners' manuals. The standard ANSI Z535.6, Product Safety Information in Product Manuals, Instructions, and Other Collateral Materials, is expected to be published by the end of 2006. It focuses on the design and placement of product safety messages (or warnings) in product-accompanying documents. For more information or to register for the seminar, please visit stc.webex.com.

February 7, 2007 WEBINAR
Heather Hedden will host an STC Web-telephone seminar, "Creating Indexes on Web Sites and Intranets," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. The seminar will focus on manually created A—Z site indexes as a solution for managers of Web or HTML content. The structure of HTML indexes and a review of how such indexes compare with site maps, taxonomies, and search engines, as well as an overview of Web indexing tools, will be presented. For more information or to register for the seminar, please visit stc.webex.com.

February 10, 2007 CONFERENCE
The deadline for submitting presentations for the fourth annual technical communication conference of the Manitoba Chapter STC and Red River College is February 10. The conference will be held April 12-13, 2007, at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba. More information and a call for presentations can be found on the chapter Web site.

February 21, 2007 WEBINAR
Melanie Doulton and Makarand Pandit will host an STC Web-telephone seminar, "Working in Global Teams," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. The seminar will focus on ways to build successful working relationships in virtual environments. The speakers will also discuss the state of technical communication in India and share the experiences of Indian technical writers working in virtual teams. For more information or to register for the seminar, please visit stc.webex.com.

March 14, 2007 WEBINAR
Rahel Bailie will present an STC Web-telephone seminar, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Content Management, But Were Afraid to Ask," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. This seminar provides the groundwork for understanding what a content management system is and what it does, the differences between various types of CM systems, some circumstances under which CM can be beneficial, and techniques for determining system suitability. The seminar will also demystify the industry vocabulary, thereby eliminating some of the barriers that can slow down the investigative process. For more information or to register for the seminar, please visit stc.webex.com.

March 16-17, 2007 CONFERENCE
The Philadelphia Metro Chapter STC will host its annual conference in the Conference Center at Penn State Great Valley, in the Philadelphia suburbs near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Featured speakers include Cheryl Lockett Zuback, Neil Perlin, Ed Marshall, Stephanie Morgan, and keynoter Robert Glushko. For more information, please contact conference@stcpmc.org.

March 28, 2007 WEBINAR
Austin Skaggs and Christine Granger will present an STC Web-telephone seminar, "Visible: The New Valuable," from 1 to 2:30 PM Eastern Time. The seminar will focus on how documentation departments can show their value by becoming more visible within their organizations. For more information or to register, please visit stc.webex.com.

April 12-13, 2007 CONFERENCE
The Manitoba Chapter STC and Red River College will hold their fourth annual technical communication conference, Technology and Teamwork, at Red River College Princess Street Campus. For more information, please contact:
Leslie McKendry-Smith

May 13-16, 2007 CONFERENCE
STC's 54th Annual Conference will be held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more information, please visit the conference Web site.

June 4, 2007
The Israel Chapter STC will hold its semi-annual convention, "The Proactive Technical Communicator: Multiple Disciplines, Multiple Perspectives," at the Daniel Hotel, Herzliya. For more information, please contact convention@stc-israel.org.il.

Send announcements of your community or regional events to tieline@stc.org.