Introduction

In 1994 I was given the opportunity to learn the Information Mapping (TM) method of technical and business documentation. Information Mapping (TM) is a trademarked documentation process based on cognitive and memory studies performed in the 1960s that explored how people process and retain large quantities of information.

IM is a mildly controversial system for a number of reasons, not the least due to its trademarked status, but the training proved invaluable to me because it introduced, at a very early point in my career, a structured and disciplined approach to the entire process of producing documentation. I have never used IM in any formal capacity since that time, but I've continued to apply the basic principles I learned in those sessions in all the work I've done.

Overview

Information Mapping(TM) (also called “The Method” by its proponents) is a very disciplined approach to producing documentation. It uses principles rooted in learning theory and cognitive psychology to:

• Improve the overall usability of the documentation by making the information easier to find and easier to digest
• Improve the overall retention of the information provided by organizing it in ways that enhance retention

IM documents depend heavily on a rididly defined set of formatting styles. IM documents tend to look the same because the formatting styles act as visual cues that the reader can use to find the specific type of information they're looking for. When a reader sees a table in an IM document he or she will know that the table contains a specific types of information, and if the reader is looking for information that falls into one of those types then they can choose to focus his or her search on tables only, decreasing the time it takes to find the information in question.

IM documents are designed to be skimmed. While it is quite possible to read through an IM-designed document from beginning to end, they are designed with the philosophy that most of the time the reader will want a specific piece of information in the documentation and will try to find that information at the exclusion of everything else.

IM Concepts and Design

IM uses a concept known as “chunking” as the foundation of its documentation methodology. “Chunking” is a phrase coined in the 50s to describe the best way to organize information in order to transfer it from short-term memory to long-term memory. According to this theory, when information is organized into 7 +/- 2 related groups, it has the best chance of being remembered over time. The “seven plus or minus two” concept is applied to IM documentation by requiring the writer to organize all the information in their document with this metric in mind.

Conceptual Elements

Blocks and Maps

The smallest element in an IM document is called a block. A block is used to convey a single “chunk” of information to the reader. The closest analogue to a block is the paragraph, but in IM blocks replace paragraphs: a paragraph is always text on a page, while a block is any chunk in a document that conveys a specific piece of information. So while a block can be text, it can also be a table or a figure.

Multiple blocks on the same topic are grouped together in the next largest element of IM documentation, called a map. A map consists of 5-9 blocks that speak to a single topic – for example, a very simple map describing how to log on to a network might have:

• an introductory block describing the purpose of the map
• a conceptual block describing the login process
• a figure block containing a flowchart illustrating the conceptual block
• a requirements block describing what conditions need to be met before the login process will succeed
• a procedure block describing the steps required to log in to the network

A complete document in IM might consist of a series of maps organized into sections or chapters, which are themselves organized into a book.

Information Types

The IM methodology puts all information into 7 different information types:

• Procedure – a task or number of steps leading to a result
• Process – a description of how a task or process is done
• Structure – a description of a physical, material object (printer, form, machine, etc.)
• Concept – a description of an idea
• Principle – a policy or rule
• Fact – a proposition that is stated rather than argued
• Classification – sorting information into organizational groups

Every block in an IM document will fall into one of these information types, and each information type has specific rules and principles that define how that block should be written and displayed. Classification information types, for example, are almost always bullet lists or tables. Procedures are always displayed as tables.

Design Elements

IM uses a rigid format for presenting blocks and maps. The theory behind the IM format is that if you present the same types of information the same way every time, the reader will become so familiar with document conventions that he or she will be able to quickly filter out the information that isn't relevant and quickly zero in on the information that is. The format IM uses emphasizes the use of white space on a page to separate information to make each block easier to process, and to carefully and consistently use various heading styles to clue the reader into what kind of information they're viewing at any given time.

Using IM

Applying IM to a documentation project is a multi-step process. At its most basic, creating documentation with IM is a three phase process:

• Phase One: Analysis of Information. The topics of the document are identified and information maps are assigned to each topic.
• Phase Two: Organization. The maps are organized and a document skeleton is created.
• Phase Three: Presentation. The maps are written and formatted according to IM standards.

Note that in this process, writing does not actually begin until phase three.

The analysis phase of a documentation effort is a little too involved to cover here, but an important part of it in IM is that the writers determine all the maps that will be created for the effort. At this point no effort is made to organize those maps – the point is simply to identify every topic the document will have to cover and then to begin identifying what information types will be included with each map. This is roughly analogous to creating a requirements traceability matrix for a project, though it's a much less complicated process overall.

The organization phase of a documentation effort involves actually determining the order in which the information maps will be arranged. Because IM is designed to be a modular approach to writing, this phase sometimes occurs at the same time as phase three (presentation). At the end of the organization phase the document should exist in skeleton form.

The presentation phase is the phase where the writers actually create the maps, making sure the blocks for each map are using the proper information types and that the appropriate formatting conventions are followed. At the end of the presentation phase the writers will start creating infrastructure for the document itself – the table of contents, index, list of figures and tables, appendices, but also “supermaps” that are essentially act as section or chapter overviews to tie related maps together.

The writing style for an information map can best be described as “spare.” IM avoids wasting words and prefers simple, direct language. Every block needs to stay “on point” and when a writer finds a hybrid block (a block that contains more than one information type in it) it needs to be divided into separate blocks.

Advantages of IM

When formally adopted by a company or department, Information Mapping(TM) has a number of benefits that will improve the overall quality of documentation:

1. The chunking concept is sound. Breaking information into manageable chunks does improve reader retention which in turn increases the overall effectiveness of user documentation.
2. The formatting structure, while perhaps emphasized too heavily by proponents of Information Mapping(TM), does make skimming easier by providing easily identifiable visual cues within the document itself.
3. The IM method forces authors to learn to analyze and structurally evaluate documents. This is something all technical writers will eventually learn to do on their own, but it isn't a skill that is often taught to new writers, and adopting IM forces all writers to use those skills. Properly performed document analysis can mean the success or failure of a documentation effort and the earlier a writer learns to do this the better.
4. IM is designed to minimize each individual writers voice as much as possible, emphasizing instead the information in the documentation over individual style. While many writers initially balk at this, a great benefit of this is that it enables an entire group of writers to create documentation that reads in a consistent and uniform fashion.

Disadvantages of IM

IM is very effective at doing what it does. However, it is not a be-all, end-all solution and it won't meet every need a department or company will have. There are a number of challenges that go with adopting IM as the official writing style for a company or department, and these challenges need to be seriously considered before committing to the method:

1. IM is a trademarked methodology and is expensive to license. The IM trademark is rather controversial in some circles because it is essentially the document formatting element of IM that is trademarked. The cost alone can be prohibitive to many companies considering the methodology.
2. Related to the previous point, the only way to learn IM is to undergo the training offered by Information Mapping Incorporated. Because of its trademarked status there are no third-party resources available – they are the only source of training and support for the methodology.
3. IM is so firmly wedded to its formatting conventions that it is unusable in projects with requirements that conflict with those conventions. Government documents – documents that are driven by MIL-STDs, DIDs, and other document specifications that define how content is presented as much as they define the content itself are completely incompatible with the mandated IM format. IM documents do not use section or sub-section numbers, for example, because the information is intended to be modular. Government documents require varying degrees of numbering in order to be able to specifically refer to parts of one document in another document, and to be able to guarantee that whenever that document number is used it always refers to the same piece of content.
4. Information Mapping(TM) is primarily intended to be used to produce end-user documentation – that is, documentation used to assist the reader in understanding a concept or performing a task. It is not as easy to adapt this style for project documentation, because project documentation is designed to meet a different kind of need.
5. The chunking/block/map style of documentation does drastically improve the clarity and comprehension of information contained in a document, but it does so by significantly increasing the size of the document. When I was being trained in IM one of my fellow students took a three paragraph recipe and converted it into the IM format. The three paragraph recipe ballooned into an eight page document, and the instructor congratulated the student on the work he had done. (The student later confessed that he'd thought of it as a work of parody.) In many cases a balance needs to be struck between the usability of the documentation (for the user) and the manageability of the documentation (for the writer or writers assigned to make sure it stays up-to-date), and in those cases IM is very unbalanced in favor of usability.
6. As of 1994 (when I was trained in it) it was focused solely on printed deliverables. The web was an interesting phenomenon but wasn't really considered a medium for documentation, and electronic help systems were mostly considered impractical for complicated technical documentation. Today IM is still considered very paper-centric and adapting it to an electronic medium requires more effort than simply using it in its native context. There are tools available to assist in this, but adapting it to an electronic medium still takes more time than applying it in a purely print-oriented environment.

The suitability of using Information Mapping(TM) in the Platinum Environment

Even with this very high-level summary of what Information Mapping(TM) is, it should be clear that the IM methodology is a very structured, disciplined approach to creating documentation. A general rule of thumb is that any structured approach to writing will provide benefits to an organization, but does it follow that if Platinum Solutions adopted the IM methodology the quality of our documentation would improve?

No, it doesn't. Despite IM's many strengths, the type of documentation Platinum produces (project documentation that must conform to government-supplied specifications and requirements) would not be permitted to conform to Information Mapping(TM) format and style requirements. Further, the modular nature of IM documents works against documentation that is designed to provide a historical record of the life cycle of a project.

Are there elements of IM that would benefit Platinum? I believe so – the incorporation of a document analysis phase (or the inclusion of writers in an existing one) and the adoption of some of the writing concepts could increase the overall usability of a document. But spending the licensing fees on a system that would need to be drastically modified to make it compliant with Platinum's business needs is too much money for too little “out-of-the-box” gain.

There are other alternatives to IM that provide similar benefits while giving the writers more flexibility when it comes to complying with customer-mandated requirements and standards. Structured Writing uses many of the same concepts that IM does because it derives from the same research, but it doesn't have the same rigid formatting guidelines. DITA (the Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is a method of identifying information types that is considered more flexible than IM's seven categories. Perhaps I'll explore these concepts in future posts.

More information on Information Mapping (TM) can be found at the Information Mapping, Inc. website.