[Sigia-l] Any guidelines/design patterns etc.. on when a downloadable format ( such as pdf/word/ppt) is appropriate compared to creating a webpage?

[Melvin Jay Kumar]

Thank you to all for your replies. Much appreciated. I agree for most
of what has been suggested.

But I would think as most of you know that working in a corporation or
Govt or as a "consultant" when you recommend something that the
respective party you are recommending to is against they want some
kind of "proof" or else they would just do what they think is
right.....

That is the basic reason why I asked for an type of "proof" I could
use to convince them. This is more for an Intranet site and the funny
thing its a webpage that support the most frequently asked questions
for three different "products" and they want to provide the FAQ's in
three word documents so every time the user wants to find out
something from the FAQ, he/she would have to download all three word
document.

I see a whole of lot of issues with that.

Sigh.....

Regards,

Jay Kumar



On 1/9/08, Betsy Martens <bmartens at vsapartners.com> wrote:
> To which I would add:
>
> If there are regulatory requirements (Sarbanes-Oxley, e.g.) that require
> certain legal statements of policy, then PDF format gives greater assurance
> of accuracy than does a more easily editable Word document.
>
> Betsy
>
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>  ::  <<<<<<<<<<<<<
> Betsy Martens
> Information Architect + UX Strategist
> VSA Partners, Inc.
> 1347 South State Street
> Chicago, Illinois 60605
> 312-895-5708
> bmartens at vsapartners.com
>
>
>
> On Jan 8, 2008, at 3:19 AM, Donna Maurer wrote:
>
> Create a downloadable if:
> - the thing in question is inherently 'point in time' and always will
> remain so (like a big scientific report that was produced at a point)
> - you *absolutely* know that people will want to print it out and read
> it on paper (like a downloadable e-book)
> - the object is demanded by such a small user group that it would be
> ridiculously inefficient to mark it all up as a web page (but there is
> demand)
> - the whole context is important and splitting it up into bits would
> destroy its meaning
>
> Can you tell I do much of my work for government ;)
>
> Donna
>
> Melvin Jay Kumar wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I would appreciate if anyone could point to me to any guidelines /
> design patterns or some source on when a downloadable format ( such as
> pdf / word /ppt) is a better option compared to creating a webpage.
>
> For example, a website that talks about policies which are large
> documents , it would be best if people are able to download the policy
> and review it.
>
> Or if its about a particular process, it would be best if they are
> able to download the process and use the printed document to reference
> while doing the process.
>
> Any help you could provide will be much appreciated.
>
> Thank You.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jay Kumar
>
>
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