English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 6

Question: Make a list of project-specific work tasks you will need to complete for the design (content specification) phase of work on your project. For each task, provide a short 1-2 sentence description.

1. Decide on the type of functionality needed for the web deliverable. Since I do not have access to user studies, I have to do a comparison of the format that other publishers and websites use for this type of instruction. Since the language for the document is set, my control sits in the design and functionality.

2. Decide on the format for the printer-friendly version of the document. My initial thought here was to use PDF as the most obvious printer-friendly document choice. However, my ability to write PDF may be limited by available technology.

3. Create and review prototype designs for both print and web deliverable. I need to complete prototype designs for both deliverables. The prototypes will likely be altered as I work with the text, but I need to more firmly define the appearance of both. For the printer-friendly version, currently, I am aiming toward a format that would emulate the print layout of the journals. Something familiar and comfortable for the users of this particular document. For the web deliverable, something more modern and functional for those users who have been trying to drag us kicking and screaming into the modern world. The printer-friendly version for the old school group and the web deliverable for the more modern.

4. Decide on the structure/order of the information. Though the text is set, I can play with the order. I have to take the order apart and then put it back together in different patterns to decide which flows best. This will be easy to accomplish if I code the separate chunks of the text in separate chunks of the XML. Then, I can rearrange the order by altering the order in which the XSLT calls the chunks.