Great technical writing improve your readers access with a visual index
Humans are real beings. They look at your product, and see, for example, a button or a display. They want to know about that control or direction. Visual Index is a simple but powerful document access tool that lets your readers find the information they need.
This article explains the concept of Visual Index and tells you how to create one for your document.
VISIBLE INDICATOR
Visual Index is a picture of your product or process with links to relevant information in a related document. Using the Visual Index, your readers can view an image, and then quickly jump to the descriptive point in your document.
Your document may include several Visual Indexes (plural form of “index” “index” and not “index”).
IT STARTS WITH A PICTURE
The Visual Index starts with a picture of your product or process. There are several types of images you can use, depending on the type of product:
* Meat Product (for example, barbecue or video disc)
Product images (all relevant views).
* Process or Procedure: A flowchart of steps and decisions in a process or process.
* Software Product 1: Software Screenshots.
* Software Product 2: Before and after photos of the product.
* Organization: Organization chart.
Label the image
Label all User Product (PIP) Interaction points in the image. U-pip is a place where your user and product can share. U-pips include controls, indicators, and appropriate product features (such as handles, lenses, etc.). Submit a valid label (to your Student) (name) for U-PIP. (Use that label directly when referring to that PIP.)
Outside: If your product uses sounds to inform the user, enter a table for those sounds, their meaning, and a link in the appropriate place for your document (audio description).
Link U-PIP TO YOUR TEXT
To date, a visual Index is the same as any well-documented image of your product or process. However, when you add links to your document, a well-labeled image becomes a Visual Index.
The link should be in the part of your document that you believe your reader would most likely want to access to find out more about that PIP. (This is an important question whenever you create an index: "does my reader want to come to this place in my document for this item?")
Your method of adding links to an image depends on how you publish the document. When a document is published as:
* Printed Document, and use page numbers to find links;
* Electronic document, and use the links that the Student can click to download. If the document is published as HTML, then the visual index can be an image map.
EXAMPLE 1: PAIN IN MY FOOT
I get pain in my foot when I walk. If I go to a website about the feet, it would be very helpful to find out about my pain, if I could see a picture of a foot with various areas where the pain could be. Links from footprints to specific web pages can help me get information about my foot pain quickly.
EXAMPLE 2: PICTURES FOR IMPROVING PICTURES
Display a faulty image that your software can handle, before and after the repair. Here are the U-PIP errors for each image.
EXAMPLE 3: STUDENT WRITING LESSON
Visual Index is a flow chart for creating a User Document. Since the Course is presented in HTML, the Visual Index is made with an image map, with links to the Study sections corresponding to each item in the flowchart.
Visual Index is a simple concept. But, like most simple ideas, it is very powerful. Try adding one to your next document. You will make your Reader a better service.
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