# Presentation: 922444

## Document Design for Effective Electronic Publication

- Scott Meyers Ph. D.
- Software Consultant
- Jason Jones
- Pearson PTR

## Intro slides (5) to come

## Adaptability: Images

- Problems
- There is no hardware standard
- Designers tend to adopt a base standard (e.g. 640x480) or to think in terms of independent resolutions
- People see things differently, even with the same hardware

## Adaptability: Images

- Solutions
- Provide multiple image sizes
- Allow the user to choose which size to view
- Allow the user to switch in and out of image size at will
- Provide instant feedback (no reloads)

## Adaptability: Navigation Areas

- Problems
- Same as images plus
- Navigation areas are funtionally different and users may treat navigation graphics differently than document graphics
- Solutions
- Same as images but
- Separate image-sizing from document- graphics and let the user mix-and-match

## Adaptability: Navigation Areas

- Add slide, other solutions

## Adaptability: File-Sizes

- Problems
- Users have different uses for the material
- General Reading
- Reference
- Printing
- Browser based searches are effective, but work on the current document only

## Adaptability: File-Sizes

- Solutions
- Break the document into multiple file sizes
- Let the user choose which size to view
- Make the choice independent of any other user choice
- Allow the user to switch back and forth between different sizes easily

## Adaptability: User Response

- Pros
- Allowing the user to customize the interface works well in a variety of different browsing situations and promotes users’ investment in the product
- Cons
- Large (book-length) file-sizes require significant computing resources and are only usable for people on higher-end systems

## Navigation: Framesets

- Problems
- Frames break browser navigation
- Frames don’t bookmark correctly
- Jumping to specific document content is impossible
- Solution
- Use javascript to generate framesets

## Navigation: Framesets

- Use one frameset per document
- Pass the target anchor to the document with javascript
- Bookmark a redirect file so that the frameset loads correctly

## Navigation: Paragraph-Specific

- Advantages of a paragraph referencing model
- Enhanced bookmarking/document targeting
- Better search integration
- Easy referencing for collaborative environments
- Easy integration with other web-based documents

## Navigation: Searching

- Problems
- Document-wide searching isn’t enough
- Users want immediate feedback and a frame of reference
- Solutions
- Integrate the search with a document wide referencing model
- Provide immediate context
- Respect users current preferences

## Navigation: Searching

- The original search applet didn’t have a mechanism to distinguish between hits or point to where the hits came from.
- The interface is also loaded with options such as Full Text/Indexed searching and Words/Regular Expression that proved confusing to users during testing.

## Navigation: Searching

- The revised search applet eliminates confusing search choices, shows the document/paragraph location to distinguish individual hits, and displays the search hit in its paragraph context so that the user can immediately browse the result. The paragraph reference, and match number allow for easy sharing  of the information amon users.

## Navigation: Link Validity

- Problems
- The web is constantly changing
- CD-ROM’s and other distributed media are not updatable
- Solution
- Links on the CD to Internet websites actually link to a look-up table maintained by the publisher

## Navigation: Link Validity

- Slide to be added

## Navigation: User Response

- Pros:
- Framesets are not a problem for most users
- A paragraph referencing model is a very good thing - promoting better search, retrieval and collaboration
- Search mechanisms that provide immediate feedback, use a standard referencing model, and give the user a sense of place are very useful

## Navigation: User Response

- Cons:
- The design of dynamic elements should be non-intrusive. A few users have requested that paragraph markers be invisible, or that they be user configurable.

## Future Plans

- Little things
- Better navigational aids (e.g., pop-ups)
- Better organization of search hits
- User control over all dynamic elements
- Bigger things:
- Ability to add annotations
- Self-configuring integrated e-book “suites”