Transcript Printed Pages vs. Web Pages: The Documentation Dilemma Deb

Printed Pages vs. Web Pages:
The Documentation Dilemma
c
Deb Wentorf
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
SIGUCCS 2001
Presentation Overview
 A Bit of Background
 Web Pages’ Wonders and Woes
 Printed Pages’ Problems and Plusses
 Some Examples from Rensselaer
 Personally Putting the Principles into Practice
 Concluding Remarks
A Bit of Background
 When the Internet was first becoming popular
back in the early 1990s, there were only a few
web pages available….maybe a few dozen.
 Today, there are nearly half a billion web pages in
existence…and that number is rapidly increasing
The Wonders and Woes
of Web Pages
The Wonders…
 On-Line Search Capabilities
 Cross-Referencing Capabilities
 Instant Access from Anywhere
 Availability to Multiple Users
 Integration of Product and Information
 Multimedia Capabilities
 Lower Cost
 Instant “Updatability” and Timely Delivery
…and the Woes
 Lack of Portability
 Users’ Unfamiliarity
 Platform or Environment Inconsistency
 Reduced Legibility
 Overlapping Windows
 Possible Legal or Copyright Issues
 Dependence on Equipment Availability
 Vulnerability
Printed Pages’
Problems and Plusses
The Problems…
 Costly Production
 Slow Delivery
 Limited Search Facilities
 Static Graphics
 “The Intimidation Factor”
…and the Plusses
 Consistency of Layout and Display
 User Familiarity
 Greater Legibility
 Greater User “Orientation”
 Portability
 “Notability”
 Independence from Hardware Requirements
 “Crash-Proof”
Some Examples from Rensselaer
Some Examples from Rensselaer
 Quick Studies
 Memos
 The Kiosk
 “The Red Book”
Personally Putting the Principles
into Practice
Personally Putting the Principles
into Practice
 This presentation is a living testimony to a
number of the very principles I’ve discussed!
 First began by taking advantage of on-line
search capabilities to locate and “bookmark”
information
 Found it was easier for me to then print out the
most useful material (and I really did use my
yellow highlighter!)
 Eventually moved back from paper to an
on-line document
Concluding Remarks
Concluding Remarks
 Personally, I think we very much need to continue
providing both paper and on-line documentation!
Here are a few other good summarizations:
 As one user in an on-line discussion put it:
“Sometimes a well-written hardcopy is just what I
want; other times on-line documentation is more
useful. It depends on what I’m trying to do.”
Concluding Remarks (continued)
 And from Horton’s book: “The transition from
paper to on-line documents will be gradual and
require considerable overlap. Perhaps
documents will exist in both forms for a
generation. Perhaps forever. The reason is
simply that people prefer to use both.”
Contact Information
c
Deb Wentorf
Communication & Collaboration Technologies
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York 12180-3590
(518) 276-8344
[email protected]
This presentation is available on-line at the URL:
http://www.rpi.edu/~wentod/SIGUCCS_2001.ppt