What is Navigation?

We are always try to "find our way"—when we travel, when we work, when we read. Life is a journey, and navigation is an important part of every element of that journey. But what is navigation and how do you apply that to information design?

Navigating through the Pearl Harbor Ship Channel

When I was a teenager, my family lived in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a family friend (Dale) invited me one day to go sailing with him and his son. We rented a small sailboat, and we met at the marina at Hickam Air Force Base to take the sailboat out through the mouth of the marina—between the flightline (which ran out into the ocean) and the entrance to Pearl Harbor ship channel—and then out into the Pacific Ocean.

As we began to sail out of the marina, Dale pointed out the buoys that were floating nearby and explained that, while we might not see how deep the water was, we would sail between the buoys to ensure that we could get out to the ocean. The buoys served to help us navigate our way through to know where the waterway was deep enough for a boat to go.

Pearl Harbor's ship channel has  concrete blocks on either side of the channel. I'm not sure why, but in some places, you can step out on those concrete blocks to get right up to the water when the tide is out. If we had wandered outside the navigated path and tide had been out, we might have scraped the bottom of the boat on the concrete blocks that surrounded that path and thus damaged our boat.

Navigating through a Document

Just as we navigated through the marina, your readers will need to navigate through your document. And effective information design considers the reader's "navigation." Your reader may be searching for specific information—e.g., a link, a source, a heading—and you as a writer want to be able to enable the reader to find that information.

For example, when you write a report, you provide your reader with a table of contents and you label each page after the first with numbers. Then, readers who are looking for information can go through the table of contents, identify the location for that information, and find the page on which that information exists.

On your resume, you will provide your reader with conventional headings that will help a reader locate specific information. You may label sections with "Experience" or "Education" or "Skills" to help the reader find that information more easily.

If you are writing a virtual document, you will also provide navigation. For example, if you are writing a blog, you will provide your readers with a list of archived posts (preferably by title rather than by date) so your readers can locate a post by the information they are seeking.

Navigation is central in information design, and to effectively plan your navigation you must focus on your user's needs and consider how the user will use the document. (Planning is part of the writing process, and you can consider navigation during the early stages of the process to improve your document's effectiveness.) To successfully plan and navigate a document, consider what conventional elements your reader expects and how your reader will work through the document. Make navigation a priority, particularly if you want to create a user-centered design.

What are Conventional Elements of a Document?

When you write documents, your audience expects certain parts of that document—such as a signature on a letter—and you must, as the writer, provide those "conventional elements"—those elements that the reader expects.

What is a document? Traditionally, documents were considered printed text and images; however, today, documents include any type of text, which includes print text, hypertext (or digital text), code, videos, and audio recordings. Think outside the box when you define "document," because today, a document can include

• books and reports,
• e-mails,
• letters,
• resumes,
• voicemail messages, and
• texts.

Because documents are diverse—e.g., each in its audience, genre, purpose, means of delivery—each document has its own conventional elements.

Conventional elements and the audience's expectations

In information design, you need to consider what conventional elements will your audience expect. When you create a Web site, your audience may expect a "search" window and button at the top right of the page or a Web master link at the bottom. For a blog, your audience may expect tags, a date, and a list of archived articles to browse. Audience members may also expect comment windows and thus the ability to interact with the designer. If you creating a podcast, your audience will expect a title and introduction of the speaker and/or subject matter.

Each document has conventional elements—elements that the audience expects—and the designer is responsible to provide what audience members need and want.

Books, manuals, and reports

In a larger, bound publication, readers expect

• a cover,
• a title page,
• a table of contents, and
• the body of the text.

The purpose of the document determines the conventional elements. For example, a novel will not need an index, lists of tables and figures, and other elements that navigate to specific information; instead, the novel should be read in a linear fashion. However, an informational book, manual, or report should allow the reader to more easily navigate—to identify the specific location of information within the document. Thus, an informational document will include lists of visuals—figures and tables—as well as an index and appendixes (supplemental information that the reader might want and that is added at the end of the document).

E-mails

When we read e-mails, we anticipate that before we open the document, we will know who sent the e-mail and what it references. Therefore, the e-mail should include the sender's e-mail address and a descriptive subject line. While these elements are informative, they also relate to security and enable the recipient to know what the e-mail contains, which helps to prevent the spread of viruses that can damage hardware and software.

Letters

Letters are a more formal communication medium than e-mail or memorandums. Traditionally, letters were the most favored form of communication, and historians maintain the letters of many great communicators and historic figures. Letters are still important and relevant today because they provide a formal documentation of the information you are sharing.

Letters should include

• your mailing address, because letters are typically sent via U.S. Postal Service;
• the date that you print the document—to inform the recipient of the timeliness of the letter;
• the recipient's name, position, and mailing address;
• a salutation (greeting);
• a introductory summary to inform the recipient of the letter's contents;
• a concluding summary to reiterate the purpose of the letter and your request for action—and include contact information (phone and e-mail) so the recipient can more easily access how to contact you; and
• a signature block.

Resumes

Resumes are perhaps the most important document that you will write because you won't get an interview if you do not write a strong resume and cover letter!

Resumes come in a variety of forms, including digital and video. But every professional needs a well-designed print resume, and that resume must include information (in varying orders and formats) about

• your name (so potential employers will remember your name),
• your contact information (so they can contact you for an interview),
• your work history with dates and locations,
• your education with dates and an emphasis on your degree (not the university), and
• skills that make you a strong candidate for the job for which you are applying.

Voicemail messages

When leaving voicemail, you should always first clearly state your name so the recipient of your message knows from whom the message comes. Also, finish all voicemails with a telephone number so the recipient can act on your message and return your telephone call. Although telephones have caller identification today, some business hardware does not allow the recipient to record the call or identify which telephone number goes with which message.

Texts

When sending a text, you should always begin with a brief introduction—your name and your relationship with the recipient—unless you know that the recipient has saved your name and telephone number to her phone. You should also consider a text as a concise mode of communication, so include a closing or a call to action but use full language rather than "text-ese."

Why Do We Address Ethics When We Present Information Online?

As information designers, we need to be aware of how we present information and the ethical responsibility that we take on when we share information with audiences online. Audience members are seeking more and more information via the Internet and through the World Wide Web, and those who provide that information must be aware of the quality of information that they publish.

What is "Ethics"?

How do we identify if we are presenting information ethically? Ethics is the state of living rightly, but communicating ethically requires that we consider how the audience will consider and use the information (personal communication, F. Kemp, August 2012). That is, we must know our audience and understand the perspective that the audience will have when audience members consume the information. And we need to ensure that we provide enough information for the safety of our readers.

For example, if you are publishing a blog about canine care, you must ensure that you are providing information that is appropriate for the audience. You would be writing unethically if you wrote a blog with a general audience but you wrote about veterinarian medicine and showed images of vet surgery.

Even more important, if you are publishing a Web site about hiking, you must ensure that you consider your reader's safety: You warn your audience members of possible hazards that they may face when they hike, and you need to address precautions that they must take when they use your information to go hiking.

Why do Ethics Matter in Content Design?

Frequently, we do not consider our ethical responsibility when we publish online. But we need to think through how we design and present information; we need to analyze all constraints and elements that can affect our writing before we write. We need to plan. We need to consider writing as a process: not just sitting at the computer and typing a message but analyzing the working through the writing process, as I addressed in my previous post about the writing process.

Ethics are important when we write because as information designers, we are a source of information for our readers. We are responsible for effectively and accurately providing information, and we build our credibility with our audience members if we consider what is "right" and provide them with accurate information that they can trust. We do good for ourselves and for our audience. 

How Can I Improve My Writing?

I frequently have students ask me, "How can I improve my writing?" What they frequently mean is "How can I make a better grade in your class?" But my answer is the same for both questions: practice and immerse yourself in good writing.

Practice

Remember your mother telling you to practice? Practice your catching skills. Practice the piano or horn. Practice your penmanship. Practice.

Practice is an effective way to strengthen a skill, particularly if you practice effectively. (Devlounge, 2009, gives tips on how to improve practice.) The secret to practice is that if you repeat an activity over and over again, you strengthen your skill at that activity. We know that practice helps us to learn and strengthen a skill; thus, we wrote our names over and over again, repeated our multiplication tables, and frequently use software that we are seeking to learn. "Practice makes perfect," as endurance athlete Bergland (2011) explains in his article, "No. 1 Reason Practice Makes Perfect."

Practice trains the brain. So as you learn to use the old/new pattern in your writing, practice that pattern in all of your technical writing: e.g., in class reports, in emails, in texts. As you learn how to identify passive and active voices, use active as often as you can.

Immerse Yourself in Good Writing

Imitatio means "imitation," and if you immerse yourself in good writing—i.e., read the works of great writers and imitate their styles—you will strengthen your writing skills as well. Therefore, read other writers' works and identify what those writers do well. Then apply those strengths to your writing.

In many classical classrooms, students study, memorize, and imitate the great writers—e.g., Plato, Socrates, Locke. Then, as students begin to express their own opinions or report information in their own way, they adapt the strengths of these great writers to their own writing. In the same way, find strong writers and imitate what you appreciate about their styles.

Imitation does not mean you are copying their works; instead, you are learning from them and applying what you learn to your own writing.

References

Bergland, C. (2011, October 13). No. 1 reason practice makes perfect. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201110/no-1-reason-practice-makes-perfect

Devlounge. (2009, May 29). How to practice effectively to improve your skills. Retrieved from http://www.devlounge.net/strategy/practice-effectively-to-improve-skills

Why are Citations So Important?

Citations are important for three reasons:

• They provide credit for the originator of the intellectual property.
• They build a writer's credibility, accountability, and accuracy.
• They help you and the reader find sources that expand on the information related to what you cite.

Legally, we are required to give credit, but we as communicators and writers benefit from citations as well.

Credit the Source

When we cite our sources, we give credit to the creator for intellectual property (IP). IP is valuable and important in today's Internet-centered environment. IP includes ideas as well as material results of thought, such as music, art, writing, code, designs, logos, and other products of the creator's thought. Numerous lawsuits center around IP and involve copyright, trademark, and patent infringement. (For a recent list, see RFCExpress, 2012.)

You can protect yourself (and Vaughan-Nichols, 2011, has some ideas on how to protect yourself and your company) but you also must ensure that you don't infringe another creator's rights. Therefore, you must give credit when you use someone else's idea or words. You may NOT use IP in full (a full photo, piece of music, etc.) without written consent of the creator or unless the IP is in the public domain or your use is allowed by creative commons licensing (which I will address in a future post).

Build Your Credibility

Citing your sources is also valuable to build your credibility. If you provide a fact without providing sources, your audience may question you; however, if you provide sources for the information that you present, your audience realizes that you know what you are saying.

For example, on January 8, 2011, a man shot Senator Gabriella Giffords in the head (as reported in a story in the Huffington Post/AP, 2011), and the first reports we heard through the news and online were mixed: Did she die or didn't she? (Tenore, 2011, wrote a commentary on this topic.) Frequently, writers and reporters—sources of information—want to be the first to tell a story or share information, and if they do not carefully check and cite their sources, they damage their credibility. Citing your sources also makes you accountable for the information you share and ensures that if you share someone else's information, you are accurate.

Record Sources of Information

Finally, citations will help you and your reader go to sources of information so they can find your source and learn more about the topic about which you communicate. Many people use Wikipedia in this way: they go to a Wikipedia article to begin research and follow citations in the article to find more information. (This is an appropriate use for Wikipedia.)

References

Huffington Post/AP. (2011, January 8). Gabrielle Giffords shot: Congresswoman shot in Arizona. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/gabrielle-giffords-shot-c_n_806211.html

RFC Express. (2012). Your primary source for intellectual property lawsuits. Retrieved from http://www.rfcexpress.com

Tenore, M. J. (2011, January 10). Conflicting reports of Giffords' death were understandable, but not excusable. Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/113876/conflicting-reports-of-giffords-death-were-understandable-but-not-excusable

Vaughan-Nichols, S. (2011, December 28). The CIO's nightmare: Intellectual property lawsuits. Retrieved from http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Feature-Articles/The-CIO-s-Nightmare-Intellectual-Property-Lawsuits/ba-p/1168

How Can I Improve the Transition between Sentences in my Paragraphs?

We can improve transitions between sentences by integrating what is called an "old–new pattern"—a pattern of nouns that links sentences in a paragraph by putting the information already presented in a paragraph—the "old" information—at the beginning of the sentence and placing new information—that which the reader has not yet read about—at the end of the sentence. The old–new pattern improves the flow of the narrative in a paragraph. The pattern also helps the reader to work through the paragraph, moving from familiar to new information.

Importance of the Old/New Pattern

Why is this important? Why use the old/new pattern in our writing? Well, if we as writers are going to write for our audience and put the readers' needs as our priority and focus on helping the reader to consume the information and follow through with the purpose for which our writing is intended, then we must present information simply and in a way that the reader can work through easily, effectively, and efficiently.

In addition, this pattern reflects how we learn. We review information that we already know and establish that strong foundation and then we build on that with new information.

Readers must be able to work through the text without having to make an effort to read. If they need to stop reading during the process to figure out poorly presented and choppy text that does not transition well, they will lose motivation, especially in online documents, and move to another source for that information.

Instruction for Old/New Pattern

The first sentence of a paragraph is all "new"—that is, the writer has not presented that information yet to the reader. The second paragraph then needs to begin with a noun—a person, place, thing, or idea—that the writer presented in the second sentence and then link that to new information. The third sentence then begins with any noun that was presented in the first two sentences, and so on. This creates a flow of information, much like the links of a chain, that connects the sentences to each other and allows the reader to progress through the paragraph with the movement of the topics, the subjects.

I encourage my students to begin learning how to write with the old/new pattern by labeling each noun with a letter of the alphabet. So, the first noun in the first sentence of a paragraph is "A," the second is "B," and so on. Then, in the second sentence, consider the first noun: have you presented that noun, that topic, before? If so, then label it with the same letter you used in the first sentence; if not, then you need to rewrite the sentence to integrate the old–new pattern in that sentence. Rewrite to begin with information you have already presented and then move to information to which the reader has not yet been exposed.

For example, in this previous paragraph, note that I used "I," "students,""old/new pattern," "noun," "letter," and "alphabet" in the first sentence. I then began the next sentences with "noun," a word I'd already introduced in the first sentence. In the second sentence, I introduced "sentence," and I began the third sentence with reference to the "second sentence." Thus, I linked my sentences by beginning them with nouns (a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea) that I introduced earlier in the paragraph.

By using the old/new pattern, writers create a better flow and help their readers to transition more easily from sentence to sentence and thought to thought.