Information Architecture and Technical Writing
Let’s start with the definition of Information Architecture. It is the process of organizing, labeling, and structuring information or content efficiently and logically. In other words, it is the creation of a library or a database where content is divided into categories depending on users’ needs, the ways they understand information, and how these categories are used. Technical writing is information architecture in a way. Technical writers do not just create content, they organize information.
This trend in technical writing is supported by technical writing tools that offer content reuse and single-sourcing. Content reuse means that a piece of text may be used in different documents or even projects, but it is stored separately. When you edit the source piece of texts, all the documents get changed automatically. You don’t edit all of them manually. Single-sourcing means that the same documentation project may have different versions and forms of output that have a lot of information in common but still are not identical.
Technical writers analyze what content is going to be used repeatedly and what content is going to be used just once. Besides, technical documentation must be updated regularly as products tend to change quite often today. A user manual that you use at the moment will not remain the same in a couple of years. For a technical writer, it means that content should always be organized the way it can be managed and updated quickly and effortlessly.
Why is the role of a technical writer so close to the role of an information architect? The answer is simple: technical writers know the products they write about and understand users.
To organize your content efficiently, you are to follow these simple steps:
- Analyze your content. As a rule, it takes a lot of time, but you will see what content you already have, whether you have gaps, and what you need to add to fill them in. I would say the results might surprise you. Most often, we think that our content, all the sections, and topics are exhaustive. But in reality, the situation might be different. You need a birds-eye over your current system of content.
- What content is reusable? If your company has several products or if one and the same product has different categories of users, some content is going to be reused very often. You need to create a structure: what topics can be reused without changes, what topics can be reused with minor changes, what topics can be reused partly, etc.
- Categorize content. This is how topics are related to each other. For example, they can form a hierarchy or a sequence. That’s how users are going to navigate.
- Create a strategy. Now you are ready to create a strategy that should include the following: key principles, goals, benefits, problems to solve. The most difficult thing is to follow your strategy all the time.
Almost every technical writer today is an information architect to some extent. Information architecture is a powerful tool that allows creating meaningful content and a whole system or even environment. You target your audience and enhance their user experience — they use technical documentation more efficiently. And what can be better than a smartly designed system of documentation?
