Modular content allows mixing and matching

• You can re-use objects to handle different conditions.

• Where you may have used conditional text before, you now grab different sets of objects to create the different versions.

• Where you may have inserted by reference, you point to the object, and call it in as part of your new document.

• When you have material that is updated frequently, you can set up a model of the document, and have software bring in the latest objects.

You can re-use the same object in content created for different purposes.

• Different products (Boilerplate material that appears in all the manuals)

• Different audiences (Niche audiences, job title, organization's relationship with your company)

• Different tasks

• Streaming releases (Documenting the product as it evolves)

• Different geographical locations

• Different languages

• Different industries

• Different types of information (some static, written by you; some dynamic, chosen by users)

Searches can turn up individual objects.

Attributes offer metadata about the object, allowing users to refine or narrow a search.

The point is to allow users to search on values in a variety of attribute fields, such as:

• Genre

• Subject

• Owner of the information

• Date created or modified

• Subject Matter Experts or Authors

• Products named

• Product ID

• Natural language used in the writing

• Programming language used in the software being discussed

• Operating systems this product runs on

Objects can be assembled on the fly, to create customized and personalized content.

Customization and Personalization demand that we break up our content into small chunks.

Customer relationship management and customization programs can track individual visitors by their cookies, and offer a portal built around their job, products, or company. In addition, individuals can create their own welcome pages, with personally selected content, including topics this particular person is interested in.

Personalization allows us to respond to individual visitors.

Users can declare their own preferences:

• Language

• Product lines or categories

• Graphic treatment

• Level of detail

• Level of contact opted for (email newsletters, email notice of specials, email notice of upgrades, discussion boards)

• Platform (Mac, Windows, Palm VII, cell phone, pager)

Users can also be distinguished by their roles

• Job roles such as database administrator, service technician, consumer

• Purchasing patterns

• Level of service required

• Problems they have encountered

• ZIP code

• Catalog sales, affiliate sales

Based on stated preferences and identified roles, we can specify some rules for this visitor, specifying or emphasizing:

• Particular topics

• Particular layouts and presentation formats, including platform-specific layouts

• Particular menus

• Rights to modify certain content

Benefits of taking an object-oriented approach

An object-oriented approach to Web content gives the user:

• Greater ability to interact with even the smallest chunks of your material

• More efficiency in browsing

• More successful searching

• Faster scanning of a page to find particular information

• Customized content, aimed at the user's interests, job, products

• More precise personalization, focusing on what's relevant, filtering out what is not

• More up-to-date content

But the process requires that

• You work within standard structures, following common patterns.

• You give up some originality of structure, so that the user can become more successful in navigating, discovering, understanding, and using the information.

• You learn to think in terms of objects, not documents.

• You use complex new tools.

• You organize information for a variety of niche audiences, and individuals.

• You integrate your information with information coming from the rest of your organization.