EPPO Projects
Every page is page one — and every page is a way in.
EPPO Projects are fictional documentation projects that take Mark Baker’s Every Page is Page One at its word. They show, page by page, what technical documentation can be online: an information space you can enter anywhere, not a manual you have to read from the front.
A book that wrote conceptual history
In Every Page is Page One: Topic-Based Writing for Technical Communication and the Web (XML Press, 2013), Mark Baker described how people actually use documentation: they don’t open a book and read it in order. They search, follow a link or scan a QR code — and land on a single page. That page has to work on its own.
From this observation Baker derived a way of writing: topics that are self-contained, serve one specific purpose, follow the pattern of their type, establish their own context, and link richly to what the reader may need next. The book turned the old navigation model upside down — away from the table of contents, towards a web of pages that each can be the first one.
“With this book, Mark Baker wrote conceptual history. His ideas deserved to become the springboard for a new generation of information spaces.”
Great concepts that rarely became a springboard
In the view of Saina Veigel, Baker’s concepts have too seldom been used for what they make possible. Many teams adopted the vocabulary of topics and reuse, yet kept publishing the manual as PDF or as an online help that is still a book with a search box. Smart information spaces — where every page knows its place, its audience and its neighbours — remained the exception.
The same goes for landing pages. On the web, the word has been claimed by marketing: pages built to convert, with one offer and one button. Documentation needs landing pages of a different kind — conceptual landing pages that orient a reader who just arrived: where am I, what is this about, what do I need to know first, and where do I go from here.
The seven characteristics of an EPPO topic
Self-contained
The page makes sense to a reader who arrives from search and has seen no other page.
Specific and limited purpose
The page does one job — explain a concept, guide a task, list the signals — and does it completely.
Conforms to type
Pages of the same type share one layout, so readers recognise what a page is for at first sight.
Establishes its context
The page states where it belongs: which product, which part, which lifecycle phase, which audience.
Assumes the reader is qualified
The page is written for the people who need it, and links to the background for everyone else.
Stays on one level
The page doesn’t mix the overview with the detail; it links up and down instead.
Links richly
The page connects to its neighbours by relation: what to read first, what to do next, what to check if something goes wrong.
After Mark Baker, Every Page is Page One (XML Press, 2013). Explanations: AI TechDoc Knowledge.
Conceptual landing pages instead of sales landing pages
| Aspect | Sales landing page | Conceptual landing page |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Convert the visitor: one offer, one call to action | Orient the reader: what this is, where it sits, where to go next |
| Reader | A prospect who should buy or sign up | A user, integrator or writer with a question |
| Structure | Funnel from promise to button | Map of entry points, context and relations |
| Links | As few as possible, so nobody leaves | As many as useful, labelled by relation |
| Success | Conversion rate | The reader finds the answer and knows the next step |
The projects
This section of the blog catches up on what Baker made possible. The first project documents a fictional packaging machine — an integrated line of six machines from four suppliers — with one page per question and one layout per page type. More lines and more kinds of projects are to follow.
Integrated machinery lines
Integrated machinery lines
All EPPO Projects are fictional. They show how documentation can be structured online; they don’t replace the instructions for use of a real machine, and naming a term or standard never implies compliance.