Making the Mobile Internet Technology Accessible for Technical. Communicators by XML Standards

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1 Making the Mobile Internet Technology Accessible for Technical Communicators by XML Standards FAN Lei (Tweddle Group China, Shanghai, 21000, China) Abstract: With the prevalence of mobile internet and the penetration of mobile devices in China, more and more users tend to consume product information anywhere, anytime. It is particularly obvious among the new generation or so called Post-90s generation How to make product information appeal to these particular types of audiences for a manufacturer or software vendor? This paper explores methods and approaches by applying XML standards, for example DITA XML that acts as a bridge between the audiences and mobile delivery of product information. The proven techniques and approaches pave the way for a broad community of Chinese technical communicators to implement an affordable, effective mobile delivery strategy. Keywords: HTML5, DITA XML, S1000D, DITA Open Toolkit, jquery, mobile Internet With the prevalence of mobile internet and the penetration of mobile devices in China, more and more users, whether owners of new vehicles or smartphone enthusiasts, tend to consume product information anywhere, anytime. It is particularly obvious among the new generation or so called Post-90s. How to make product information appeal to these particular types of audiences for a manufacturer or software vendor? This paper explores methods and approaches by applying XML standards, for example DITA XML that acts as a bridge between the audiences and mobile delivery of product information. The paper gives a method for how to transform Word or Frame Maker documents into HTML5 through applying DITA Open Toolkit. This approach paves the way for a broad community of Chinese technical communicators to implement an affordable, effective mobile delivery strategy. 1 FACTS ABOUT HOW TECHNICAL INFORMATION IS CONSUMED IN NOWADAYS In practice, technical communicators often times rely on a traditional desktop publishing approach, for example, Word or Frame Maker, to generate product documentation in PDF. It is especially true for small Chinese businesses. However, there is growing trend that consumers are generally used to consume video and product information on a mobile device at a fast pace. Refer to Fig. 1 for a forecast by Cisco showing an increased consumption of both mobile devices and video and mobile web. With the old approach, technical communicators are never capable of meeting the diversified demand of consumers who prefer media-rich and mobile-friendly delivery of information. Furthermore, Fig. 2 shows that people tend to use multiple devices at the same time to complete tasks or entertain, etc. To please audiences of this group, technical communicators need to adapt its offerings to multiple devices. Author Biography: Fan Lei, a XSL developer and technical author, trainer and manager; teamwise@139.com. 1

2 Fig. 1 Research Shows Increased Mobile and Video Usage among Young Generations Fig. 2 Google Data Shows Ubiquitous Use of Multiple Devices for Average People To address the needs, here comes solution HTML5. With Word or FRAMEMAKER, copying and pasting between DTP packages and a HTML package such as Adobe Dreamweaver is tempting and prevailing, because it appears that it is straightforward. However, not only research has shown that this method costs at least 1.5 times that of a XML structured approach, and the cost will become even prohibitive when the amount of information and delivery media grows significantly, but also the traditional approach restricts innovations, for example, technical communicators are not able to gain access to a wide variety of Internet framework, such as jquery, Bootstrap, etc. To lower the cost and unleash the power of the Internet for an optimized information delivery, here comes XML structured approach. 2 MOBILE DELIVERY OF PRODUCT INFORMATION BY APPLYING DITA OPEN TOOLKIT, DITA XML STANDARD Delivery Method Implementation phases can be divided into: 2

3 1) Technical communicators migrate from unstructured writing to structured authoring, by implementing DITA or S1000D XML. As illustrated below, with structured documentation, information is modular based and can be reused easily (Fig. 3). Fig. 3 Compare the Unstructured Documentation with Structured Documentation Build a publication through assembling DITA Map+ DITA Topics. Structured authoring begins with writing, for example several DITA topics and a DITA Map, the skeleton of which is shown in Fig. 4. 2) Setup DITA OT to do publishing (Fig. 5). Fig. 4 Make DITA Topics and A DITA Map 3

6 High Level View of the Publishing Process 3) Publish to HTML5, for example, D4P-HTML5, a mobile

4 Fig. 5 DITA Open Toolkit Publishing Console Below is a high level view of the publishing process when the DITA Open Toolkit does the job (Fig. 6). Fig. 6 High Level View of the Publishing Process 3) Publish to HTML5, for example, D4P-HTML5, a mobile device ready output format. Note that with so many vendors and Open Source framework out there, there is a wide array of HTML5 options, as shown below (Fig. 7): 4

5 Fig. 7 A Pyramid Shows DITA Open Toolkit Plug Ins for HTML5 Delivery The following shows HTML5 rendering outcome (Fig. 8-10): Fig. 8 Bootstrap Enabled HTML5 Delivery 5

6 Fig. 9 jquery Enabled HTML5 Delivery Fig. 10 Bootstrap Enabled HTML5 Delivery 6

7 3 CONCLUSIONS The paper shows that XML structured approach is one of the most cost effective, efficient way to do mobile delivery of product information. With the adoption of artificial intelligence and prevalence of WeChat, it is believed that XML structured approach shall continue playing a major grow, as a future proof technology. Whilst, bear in mind that technology is always driven by addressing fundamental needs of consumers who pursue a pleasant experience. REFERENCES [1] Li Y, Zhang X. Study of semantic information organization technologies based On DITA and topic maps[j]. Digital Library Forum, 2012(4): 1-5 [2] Ma J, Yang Q, Chen H, Method research to extend music domain into DITA OT[J]. Computer Engineering and Design, 2013, 34(10): 1-7 [3] Guo J, Feng D, Shan H, et al. Requirement analysis of IETM based on S1000D[J]. Popular Science & Technology, 2014(7): 2-4 [4] Kimber E. DITA for Practitioners[M]. Vol 1. CA: XML Press, ( 责任编辑刘璐 ) 7

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