Related Sites

Last modified: 7/6/99
This section lists sites that may have information related to writing for the Intranet. There is also a companion page which lists some interesting books.

Many sites, including most of those listed here, cover writing for the general Web, not just for business writing. Much of their advice is based on today's (or yesterday's) Internet environment and general site creation. This site (www.gooddocuments.com) is much more concerned with writing and reading in the office environment, with that environment's type of equipment and needs. We'll try to point out what might be specific to our topic in some of the descriptions.

Standard disclaimer: A listing here is not an endorsement. We are not responsible for these sites, we have not read all the way through them, we don't check them for changes, offensiveness, etc.

User Interface Engineering (http://www.uie.com): They do usability testing and report some of their findings. Their work on Web Site usability is especially related.

useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website (http://www.useit.com): Jakob Nielsen is a principal of
the Nielsen Norman Group, a user experience consultancy. Until July 1998 he was a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer and their Web usability guru. He writes a biweekly Alertbox column on Web usability. The site includes some of his writings and links to other sites, books, etc. His material is mainly about web sites, but there are some pieces specifically targeted to Intranet writing. Well worth following.

Keith Instone's Usable Web (http://www.usableweb.com): Has links to research and web usability resources. A great place to start for usability and design information. Details from the site: "Major updates once a month. Usable Web is a collection of 349 [as of 6/1/98] links and accompanying information about human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web. Usable Web adds value to the links by providing descriptions, multiple organizational schemes (by date, by site, by topic) and custom search engine queries."

CIO Magazine Intranet Resources (http://www.cio.com/WebMaster/wm_intranet_sites.html): Pointers to articles related to Intranets.

David Weinberger's "Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization" (http://www.hyperorg.com): A newsletter that "considers the Web's effect on how business works ... and the emergence of the hyperlinked organization."

Contentious (http://www.contentious.com): "A monthly web-zine for professional writers and editors who create content for the web and other online media." For example, in the first issue there is an article "Cut the fluff!" on being concise and avoiding "...slick, heavy-duty PR; or graphics designed exclusively for flash..."

Scripting News (http://www.scripting.com): Dave Winer's site, including his DaveNet column. The site homepage has a reverse-chronological list of news items Dave finds of interest. Some of them relate to interesting studies and articles related to our topic; many are related to his Frontier product (a content management/publishing system built around an object database, scripting, outline, and multi-tasking runtime). This is a real living site, updated often a few times a day, that has lots of content, and is an example of a type of resource one might need on an Intranet (devoted to your company's area, of course).

Web Photo Journals (http://www.webphotojournals.com): Dan Bricklin's web site, a companion to this one, that is dedicated to personal photo albums and journals on the web. While the web site is targeted at individuals writing for their friends and relatives, almost all of the material is relevant to creating trip reports on Intranets. After all, writing for a small, known group is very similar to an Intranet. A trip report (or competitive analysis, etc.) with words and photos delivered on-screen can be very valuable to a company.

About Hypertext

Eastgate Systems (www.eastgate.com/Hypertext.html): Eastgate Systems' premiere collection of links related to hypertext, including their journal, Hypertext Now.

Kairos (http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/): A Journal For Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments. This is aimed at the academic community and has nice scholarly articles (peer reviewed). For example, "Rhetorics of the Web: Implications for Teachers of Literacy" asks "...is rhetorical interchange possible in a form that works against the linear-sequential argumentative structures that have traditionally underpinned rhetoric?"

Hypertext Places (http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/hypertext.places.htm): Historically-oriented links from McMaster University in Ontario about hypertext.

Cyberscribes (http://www.ellipsys.com): Anne Hart's Cyberscribes includes interviews of online writers.

Jorn Barger (http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/net/timeline.html): Argues that links should be useful. Jorn's History-of-Hypertext Timeline is a good place to enter his web.

Web Style Guides
Many of these are old, but may still be relevant.

Berners-Lee's Style Guide for Online Hypertext (http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Provider/Style/Overview.html): As you might expect, Tim Berners-Lee wrote the very first style guide. His essay on design issues (http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/DesignIssues/Topology.html) includes helpful thoughts about the previewing of links.

Sun's Guide to Web Style (http://www.sun.com/styleguide/): A detailed style guide, with a section on writing links. Complete with a Quick Reference that has the main summary sentences.

Yale C/AIM Web Style Manual (http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual): An updated version of a web style guide. This is more of a linear document, to be read like a book, with illustrations. It is targeted to people creating web sites, and it is the authors' "...attempts to apply some of the lessons we've learned in twelve years of multimedia software design, graphic interface design, and book design to the new medium of Web pages and site design." The original may be referred to in some critiques listed on other sites.

Jutta Degener's "What is good hypertext writing?" (http://kbs.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jutta/ht/writing.html): Jutta Degener argues that "The two pitfalls of writing hypertext copy are links and emotions. Links are a new stylistic element that writers must learn to handle. The emotional problem is harder: we must snap out of the ``host'' or ``provider'' role, must get away from the excitement of guiding another person through the text, and get back to - just writing." If you agree with her, Jutta offers a useful list of dangerous words.

Gareth Rees Style Guide (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/gdr11/style-guide.html): A short guide from 1996.

Kory Hellmer's World Wide Web Page Competition criteria (http://www.kory.com/criteria.htm): The critique form used by judges in a web site contest. A checklist aimed at web sites.

C J Silverio "Why the web sucks, II" (http://www.spies.com/~ceej/Words/rant.web.html): Argues that "Most people aren't very good at designing & producing documents" and "HTML doesn't help." Ceej's language is rough but we appreciate her focus on "content, content, content."

More Usability Testing Sites
Usability testing is a way to see if your document works. (See the "Test new designs" Technique.)

Keith Instone's Usable Web Usability Engineering list (http://usableweb.com/items/usabilityeng.html): Has links to usability resources.

Dorothy Kushner (http://www.utesting.com): Several pages you can use to help explain the "use" of usability are on the Kushner & Associates site. Of particular interest are:

About Usability (http://www.utesting.com/html/about_usability.html): "Usability is the combination of fitness for purpose, ease of use, and ease of learning that makes a product effective." She nicely summarizes Jared Spool's product maturity stages.

Interface Quiz (http://www.utesting.com/html/interface_quiz.html): Take this yourself! A wonderful checklist of things to think about.

Jurek Kirakowski (http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/resources/qfaq1.html): If you are considering usability testing via questionnaires, Jurek Kirakowski of the Human Factors Research Group has summarized the key issues that non-statisticians need to keep in mind.

Sites That Link To This Site
Some of the sites that have linked to this site (and therefore may think that readers of their material may find this subject of interest) are listed here on the assumption that our readers may find their material of interest, too.

Keith Dawson's TBTF (www.tbtf.com): Tasty Bits from the Technology Front includes a weekly newsletter alerting readers to bellwethers in computer and communications technology, with special attention to commerce on the Internet. People with a technology bent that we know almost always find this newsletter interesting and quote it in conversation.

Eastgate Systems (www.eastgate.com/Hypertext.html): Eastgate Systems' premiere collection of links related to hypertext, including their journal, Hypertext Now (mentioned in our "About Hypertext" section above), listed this site in their "Hypertext Resources on the Web" page, http://www.eastgate.com/hypertext/WebHypertext.html.

useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website (http://www.useit.com): Jakob Nielsen is a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer and their Web usability guru. He writes a biweekly Alertbox column on Web usability. The site includes some of his writings and links to other sites, books, etc. His material is mainly about web sites, but there are some pieces specifically targeted to Intranet writing. Well worth following.

Marc Ziegler's Search Page (http://www.accesscom.com/~ziegler/search.html): Marc Ziegler maintains "a directory or hot list for people who want to search the Internet and World Wide Web for something but don't know where to start."

The Scout Report (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/): A publication of the Internet Scout Project, a project of the InterNIC, based at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, is "the premier weekly collection of useful Internet sites for discerning Internauts. Care is taken in the selection of items included in the Scout Report. Basic criteria include depth of content, author, information maintenance, and presentation. The content of each resource is briefly described." This report has been continuously published for over 3 years and an EMail version is available.

Keith Instone's Usable Web (http://www.usableweb.com): Much of the external material referenced on this web site was found using Usable web. Details from the site: "Major updates once a month. Usable Web is a collection of 349 [as of 6/1/98] links and accompanying information about human factors, user interface issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web. Usable Web adds value to the links by providing descriptions, multiple organizational schemes (by date, by site, by topic) and custom search engine queries."

More Resources

Building a better interface (http://www.builder.com/Graphics/UserInterface/index.html): Article on www.builder.com with experts discussing navigation and their tips for web writing.

Eternal Beta (http://www2.whidbey.net/jmwallin/): A resource for web authors that aims to "...provide accurate and timely information on the standards of Web authoring, with an emphasis on maintaining and supporting the device-independent nature of the World Wide Web."

dotParagon's Human Computer Interaction Resources (http://www.dotparagon.com/resources/hci.html): Many links regarding human factors and web design.

Credibility and Web Site Design (http://www.warner.edu/critchfield/hci/critchfield.html): An article by Ron Critchfield that "...describes an informal usability experiment that examined the relationship between credibility and Web site design." Compares the use of long, scrolling, word-processed material with a multi-page, navigable design. Interesting, and has a good bibliography.

WebWord.com (http://www.webword.com): John S. Rhodes' web site that focuses on usability and human factors in web sites, email, etc., with expert interviews, recommended books, his column, etc.

This is not an exhaustive list. We will be adding more over time.

Please let us know about other resources you think are useful. If you link to us, also let us know.