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

[Stew Dean]

On 09/01/2008, Ziya Oz <listera at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > they want to provide the FAQ's in three word documents...

> And it should take no longer than a couple of hours to demonstrate that an
> Ajax-based HTML FAQ is utterly superior pretty much in every way to a static
> Word document (jumps, progressive disclosure, hide/reveal, contextual
> graphics, auto-highlighting, search..you name it).

Having recently removed some of these kinds of bells and whilstles
from an FAQ to make it more usable there is a danger of adding too
many toys to what should be simple scannable copy.

Just because you can do it doesnt mean you should. Often much of the
real clever stuff can be done behind the scenes to ensure what the
users sees is relevant, up to date and links in with the other content
of FAQs, making them contextual depending on what the user does etc
but with presentation simplicity is often the key.


-- 
Stewart Dean