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How to Create a Site Where Users Can Actually Find Information — Interview with Thom Haller
January 23rd, 2007 | Posted in Tech Writer Voices |
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Duration: 45 min.
Thom Haller, information architect and director of the Center for Plain Language, talks about how to create a site where users can actually find the information they’re looking for.
Specific topics in this podcast include:
- The GECKO method (Gather, Evaluate, Chunk, Know, Optimize) for organizing content for websites
- Arranging information based on user tasks
- Clarity traps such as familiarity and clutter
- Measuring the success of a well-architected site
- Case study with plainlanguage.gov
Thom also talks about how the use of Plain Language helped the state of Washington collect an extra $800,000 in revenue.
In addition to his duties at the Center for Plain Language, Thom also teaches Information Design at the University of Maryland and Information Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
To learn more about Thom, visit the following sites:
You can contact Thom at thom@thomhaller.com. You can also comment on this podcast by using the comment feature below, or by linking to this post in your own blog post.
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January 23rd, 2007 at 8:00 am
[...] I just posted a podcast with Thom Haller on Tech Writer Voices. It’s an interesting podcast, with the central focus on organizing your site’s information around tasks the users want to perform. We write help documentation the same way of course, but I hadn’t really thought of applying the same principles to a website’s information. [...]
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:06 am
How to Create a Site Where Users Can Actually Find Information ……
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January 24th, 2007 at 9:21 am
[...] This book is so relevant to technical writers. In my recent interview with Thom Haller, he mentioned how familiarity is one of the main things that gets in the way of clarity. This is a total paradox, though. The more you know an application, the better poised you are to write a good help file. But the more you know an application, the more familiar you are with it, and so you are less likely to write a good help file. [...]
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:09 pm
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptHow to Create a Site Where Users Can Actually Find Information — Interview with Thom Haller January 23rd, 2007 Tom Posted in podcasts [...]
April 1st, 2008 at 12:25 pm
[...] like the whole world is listening to you. It’s an experience people never forget. (Except Thom Haller, who I interviewed once for 45 min, met him at a conference several months later, and learned he [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 4:42 am
[...] How to Create a Site Where Users Can Actually Find Information — Interview with Thom Haller [...]
August 31st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Good day!,
September 1st, 2008 at 12:56 am
Hi!,