Mail Starting 4/8/98
7 messages, ending 4/21/98
Last modified: 5/13/98
This page is in reverse chronological order.

From: Mary Utt
Date: 4/21/98
Subject: Comments on Good Documents site

Repeat the contents list (News, About, Where, etc.) on the left panel of all the topics, so readers don't have to return to the home page to select the next topic.

Repeat the "comments-to"  link on every page (especially on the mail page!) so readers can write comments at any point, and not have to return to the home page. (The link is also a little small; maybe make it a bit more prominent.)

You bring up something that needs some discussion: How much common navigation should be put on every page vs. single link to more navigation. In the design of Good Documents I decided to put lots of summaries and detail links on the left. I left a single link up to the main homepage. Thinking that new readers would not remember the overall organization, I left it to the homepage, where there are summaries, to have the list. Also, looking to smaller browser windows, I wanted to keep the left panel from scrolling when possible. This meant no list of contents. As a user, you seem to imply I should have made the other choice. What do others think? Should we change? On which pages? (The size issue of the comments-to link and its placement on this page have been addressed as you suggest.)
-DanB

From: David P. Schwartz
Date: 4/20/98
Subject: Techniques

Here are a few suggestions based on things that I've found annoying...

Sizing

Be sure you see how your web pages appear in 640x480 mode, or shrink down your browser window to see how they appear when viewed that size. Most Windows systems have an option for "large" or "small" font rendering that changes the layout locally, but not when others view things.  So, be conscious of the fact that the use of higher-res monitor modes (1024x768 and larger) often results in having larger font sizes appear locally, and the resulting pages will be oversized and quite sparse when viewed in 640x480 mode.

Timing

The average person's attention span for "doing nothing" is about 15-20 seconds.  Pages that take longer than this to load, due to excessively large graphics, unnecessarily high-res graphics, or pages that simply contain too many graphics or complex graphical elements, are likely to be skipped over by impatient users.

Large grapics

If a page contains large graphics, keep the user's attention by saving them in an interleaved format that allows them to observe something happening, rather than viewing a blank screen for 15-30 seconds wondering what's going on.

Thumbnails

Use graphic thumbnails wherever the details are optional, and allow the user to explicitly choose to view the details by clicking on the thumbnail.  There's nothing more annoying to me than having to wait for a huge graphic to load only to find that I really just need to scroll down and click a button below it.

Respect the User's Time

I guess that if I were to summarize the last three items above, I'd say it simply as follows: The web is an interactive medium, so show respect for the user's side of the connection -- consider his/her time as valueable as the time you put into designing your materials, and they will reward you by paying closer attention to your materials!

-David

Thanks!
-DanB
From: Bob Racko
Date: 4/19/98
Subject: Whoops... funny page came up...

http://www.gooddocuments.com/samples/ts_tours.htm

came out a bit wierd.
looks like it re-nested the page as a subframe.

The double nesting is purposeful, even if it looks weird -- I'm showing off the feature that I'm using. I guess it was too confusing. In response to this mail, I've changed that page to have a different background from the other tour pages to try to make it less confusing. Is it any better?
-DanB
From: Mark Bernstein, Eastgate Systems, Inc.
Date: 4/16/98
Subject: Gooddocuments.com

GoodDocuments.com is an inspiring, engaging, and important new site, a real service to the Web community. Visual design is important, but solid, effective writing is indispensable to effective business hypertext.

Indeed, I think you sell yourself short in your emphasis on the distinction between business communication and Web sites -- between internet and intranet. Good business writing is important for almost all business sites. The importance of white papers in the software business, for example, has only been magnified by their prominence on the Web.

Some details I noticed while browsing:

>    Many sites, including most of those listed here,
>    cover writing for the general Web, not just for
>    business-type writing

Awk. "Business-type writing" is synonymous with "business writing", isn't it?  Also, "office type of equipment and needs" is awkward. I'm also unsure what is meant here: depending on the firm and the industry, the intranet environment may be far behind the adoption curve or far ahead. [Large Company] Central R&D, for example, was _behind_ the curve when I worked there.

(What followed were comments on fonts, stylesheets, word usage, etc., some of which we've fixed, some of which we can't, yet.)

Thanks for mentioning Eastgate! Let me know how we can help.

Thanks, Mark, for the comments! I reworded the awkward text you mention. Hopefully it's better now.

With regards to Intranets being behind the times, I was looking to the advanced ones here. The use of normal LAN connections, at LAN speeds, and the possibility of responsive, local servers was what I was referring to. I know not everybody has them now, but they will in the future and I want to be ready for them when they arrive.
-DanB
From: Bob Frankston
Date: 4/16/98
Subject: Good Documents site
The site looks good (may even get me to do my writings in this format?) but some suggestions:

Make the "Good Documents" logo on the left a link back to the home page.
Put the section name, like "Techniques", on the left border on the first page of the section -- it scrolls off the top.

Done. -DanB
From: Dan
Date: 4/8/98
Subject: Mail

Just starting, so no mail, yet.