Readability/Usability/Quality 1-98 (March 1998) by Marilyn A. Dunning France

At Comtec '97, I was the activator of an idea market on indexing. What follows is a summary of the ideas we exchanged. I hope you will find its contents worthy of reflection, and that it will encourage you to respond with comments and suggestions.

 

An Unanticipated Early Start

The earliest ideas evolved the day prior to Comtec '97. As I was preparing my paperboard, fellow activators gathered around me and we began an impromptu discussion. Here are two of the initial comments:

• "With on-line documentation or information, people think that indexes are passé [that is, antiquated or out-of-date]."
• "Indexes are links for on-line information sources, they are not just links used for on-line Help."

I offered the following for the group to reflect upon:

Generally, one finds the index at the back of the book (though I have seen a few French documents with indexes placed at the front of the book). Or, then again, professional indexers often refer to themselves as "back of the book indexers". The index has had enough of sitting at the back of the book. It's time for indexes to come to the foreground in our documentation. Today, the index has a star's role, but we are not paying homage to our star!

The basic principle of indexing is still valid: Key words in an index must point end users to pertinent information concepts. This is even more important with on-line documents. Whether on-line or in print, users require rapid, accurate access to information. Rapid, because time is money. Accurate, however, is a topic that requires closer attention. Just as a document requires planning to enable it to meet the needs of the intended audience, so too does the index. If users cannot find the information they seek, using terms familiar to them, the index will have failed its purpose. Worse still, the user is led to believe the information he or she is seeking does not exist.

 

Warming Up the Audience

To get the workshop off and rolling, I wrote the following questions on the paperboard: Who?, What?, When?, How?, Why?, and, In which order?

 

Audience Reaction

How do you go about making an index?

"The problem with indexing is that it is a skill. You have to learn it like algebra, where you learn the [correct] equation for solving the problem. So, I know there must be a formula for creating a usable, ... an excellent index."

 

What does one index?

• "Key words."

What kinds of key words?

• "Key words of a document."

Consider this:

How many times have you used a search engine on the Web and as a result of a one-word inquiry, received 20,000 responses? A key word is an important word in a particular context. Secondary entries bring specification to key words. As seen in the example below, the key word "Printing" is followed by secondary entries "forms" and "graphics". Such references lead users to the exact information they require.

Printing,

• forms, 40
• graphics, 25

"Who should write the index?")

• "A machine can do the index.",
• "Machines do only logical, analyzed indexes."

Consider this:

By specifying the word "capital", do we mean for the machine to index the city of a given state or a monetary concept? So, while a machine can compile an index, the end result still requires human intervention.

Another consideration:

A writer once stated that he created a macro that turned a table of contents into a basic index. Perhaps he was not aware that a table of contents and an index definitely do not serve the same purpose.

How about employing a second writer or a professional indexer to write your index?:

• "I don't know about a second writer".
• "I feel like I'd lose control of my document.",
• "If you're too close to the book, you can't make a proper index." (Is that true or false?),
• "You wrote it, you know it--all the concepts - so you will use the correct words."

Consider this:

• "I wrote this
• this sentence so that
• you will be able to understand..."

I wrote the above text on the paperboard and asked the audience to read it. One participant, who stated that she felt she'd lose control of her document, read the text aloud, missing the second "this". Another participant, standing right next to the first one, read the text silently and announced "The word "this" is written twice." The first participant was amazed that she'd missed this detail, which lead to an affirmation that indexes should be edited.

How does one evaluate an index, especially if it has been written by a second writer or a professional indexer?:

• "By performing usability testing with typical end users.",
• "By asking an end user to use the index as they would normally use one, stressing that they should look up terms that are familiar to them."
• "... as for losing control of your document, you can always provide a list of terms and concepts that you feel should be in the document."

From the audience:

li>"What is the correct number of pages for an index?":

Consider this:

The answer depends on the quality of your index. However, some writers advocate a certain number of entries for each page of text. Others swear by a fixed percentage of the total number of pages in the document. (Tip: If you choose the latter of the two, try using columns in the index to gain space.)

No matter which method you choose, carefully plan your indexes. Try to keep the number of repetitions to a minimum. Anticipate the way in which your users will look for information. For example: one participant stated, "At IBM, they don't use the term "floppy disks", they call them "diskettes."

Try to create user-helpful entries that take the user where they want to go. For online documents, make sure your users have the option of getting back to where they started.

 

An innovative approach to indexing

Consider this:

I surprised the audience when I stated that an index can be a learning tool for multi-level audiences. "When you have novice, intermediate and expert users, an index can prove to be a very valuable learning tool. Expert users will know what they are looking for and require no assistance, just exactitude. Novices will need help in finding new concepts. By efficient use of cross-references, you can give novices complementary information without wasting the expert users' time. Intermediate users, sometimes resistant to learning or letting on that they do not know what function XYZ performs, could find old terms coupled with new terms, and learn in spite of themselves."

An acknowledgement and an encouragement

My thanks go to all those who participated in this workshop (especially Anne-Marie Payne-Charby, who was both a participant and a reviewer of this article). I also encourage all of us to take steps toward finding ways to improve the quality of our documentation.  

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"