Communication Of Complex Information: User Goals And Information Needs For Dynamic Web Information

摘要

As someone who researches the communication of detailed scientific information via Web-based multimedia and who regularly teaches courses in related areas, I eagerly anticipated reading Michael Albers's book. From the beginning, Albers promises that Communication of Complex Information: User Goals and Information Needs for Dynamic Web Information will help technical communicators to "better understand the user's goals and information needs" in order to develop quality content (p. ⅹⅲ). The "concern is not with how to retrieve information from the database," he writes, "but how to ensure that proper information exists to be retrieved" (p. ⅹⅱ). I agree with his early statement that many texts on information design seem to start with the design of the interface and the assumption that the content already exists, somewhere, to be plugged into the appropriate spot and that far too few texts take up the daunting task of content development. Despite my initial enthusiasm and the promise of Albers's early claims, the text does not live up to these expectations because it largely fails to develop clear, concrete, and usable frameworks for the development practices he advocates.