The Content Wrangler
IBM Task Modeler For DITA Maps
IBM alphaWorks has announced availability of IBM Task Modeler, an Eclipse-based software tool for modeling human activity as a hierarchy of tasks and related elements.
According to the Task Modeler website, “task modeling is integral to design practices such as information architecture, user experience design, and instructional design. Much of human activity is goal-oriented. Consequently, users approach any interactive system with well-formed expectations about the scope, names, and structure of the tasks that it should support. Designers use task modeling to identify these tasks in order to design information architecture and user experiences that are perceived as useful, efficient, and natural.”
According to IBM’s Paul Englefield, “An information architect can use Task Modeler to design Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) maps. A usability practitioner can produce either classic Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) diagrams or RAG (Roles and Goals) diagrams. The tool can be used in a workshop, during a field study, or at one’s desk to rapidly create, explore, analyse, and share these models.”
The Task Modeler website explains: “Maps and models consist of nodes and properties. Nodes describe elements such as topics and concepts or roles and goals. For example, DITA maps define nodes such as topics, tasks, concepts, and references according to the DITA standard. The RAG diagram builds an integrated view of key UCD (User-Centred Design) data such as user profiles, context of use, motivation, and behavior. Properties define details for each node. For example, DITA topic properties define elements such as audience and platform metadata, and RAG properties define aspects such as the demographics of a stakeholder role or the measurements associated with a goal. These properties can be strings, numbers, keywords, or references to files and Web URLs. Keywords can be either user-supplied or predefined as a controlled vocabulary.”
Michael Priestley, IBM DITA Architect and Classification Schema PDT Lead, notes that the tool “lets you quickly create DITA maps and generate stub content for a prototype build, including support for major map structures like hierarchies (e.g., tables of contents) and relationship tables (e.g., for related links) and the base DITA topic types (concept, task, reference).”
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