Dated events in order, for a history people will enjoy or a project they have to follow.
A timeline is a list that takes dates seriously. Two finished ones are here: a family boatyard's thirty years, sent out before its anniversary, and the twelve weeks of an office move, sent to the thirty people moving. They share a spine of dates and almost nothing else, so pick the one closer to your job.
Who it's for
The history kind is for a company, a club or a family with an anniversary coming, and it goes to everyone who was part of the story. It can end with an invitation, but a page can't collect replies, so say how guests should answer.
The project kind is for a move or a launch with a fixed end date and a crowd that needs to know what happens when. If you need to see what a delay does downstream, make a Gantt chart instead. A timeline shows order, and leaves out what waits on what.
What a good one contains
- Dates in one format, down one edge. The history uses bare years, and the move uses weekday, month and day. The eye should find the date in the same place every time.
- Unequal weight. Thirteen entries tell the boatyard's story, and five are set larger. A timeline where every year gets the same two lines reads like meeting minutes.
- An overview before the detail. The history opens with thirty years as dots on one line. The move puts twelve numbered weeks, with four phases under them, ahead of its first step.
- Short entries with one concrete thing each. "He pays half in cash and half in firewood" does more than a paragraph about humble beginnings.
- Chapters or phases. Three chapters break up the history, and four phases break up the move. Without them a long list has no shape.
- For a project, an owner on every date. Each of the move's sixteen steps names who does it, and the five that fall to everyone are in red.
- A mark on the dates that can't move. The lease ends April 30, and a black square says so.
How each kind fails
Histories fail by being complete. Ask the oldest person involved for the five days they still talk about, and build around those. Then check each year with someone who was there, because an anniversary page with a wrong date gets corrected in public.
Project timelines fail on weekdays. "Friday, April 30" has to be a Friday, and a reader who catches one wrong day stops trusting the rest. Check the gaps too. The move's internet is ordered on February 12 because the provider quotes up to nine weeks, and the line is tested nine weeks later to the day.
How to send it
As an open link. A history is meant to be passed around, so the boatyard's link is open. The office move names staff and says when the old office empties, so send that kind with a password.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
