a cognitive design for user assistance 1: users become learners
DESCRIPTION
Part 1 of a series of 3 webinars sponsored by Adobe (thank you) explaining the need to treat software users as learners in our rapidly changing informational environment. Recording of complete webinar at http://adobe.ly/WpNZQJTRANSCRIPT
RAY GALLON CULTURECOM
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A Cognitive Design for ���User Assistance
Users Become Learners
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Once, we needed to learn to make fire…
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Do we teach it today?
Our immediate, contingent needs change over time
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The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different ! ! !" Peter Drucker"
Our job is to help people use our products well and wisely, which means they learn to adapt, and cope with changes in technology and society.
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OECD: The Future Requires Complex Thinking
Expert Thinking
Complex Communication
Non-routine Manual Tasks
Routine Cognitive Tasks
Routine manual tasks
• Communication • Knowledge
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Today’s Software Provides ���Information-Rich Environments
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Today’s Software Provides ���Information-Rich Environments
...to a vector of information that actually makes vital decisions for you.
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A Few of the Things Software Now Does
All these applications put you in a changed relationship with
people who are in a different context from your own
"
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Faced with this Complexity, ���I, the User, Have Needs!
To solve my immediate problem, I need to…
• Decide
• Do
In order to do that, I need to…
• Know
• Understand
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Shared Common Understanding
Example: Using MS Office Move Column
Save File
Indent Text
Send Mail
Autofit Text
Inspired by Prof. Jim Cummins, University of Toronto
Consolidated Expertise
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And Learning supports Decision-Making…
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Decision Support for Users
• Two types of decision support in software:
• Automated decision support aids
• Information designed to inform the user's judgment, but not formalized into an automated system
In technical c
ommunication,
most of the ti
me
we do the latt
er type.
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Core Principles for ���Decision Support of Any Type
• Begin with users’ needs
• Give priority to process over products
• Link information between producers and users
• Build connections across disciplines and organizations
• Seek institutional stability
• Design processes for learning
Source: U.S. National Research Council
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Core Principles of Minimalism as Restated by JoAnn Hackos
• Focus on an action-‐oriented approach (Users’ needs, process)
• Ensure you understand the users’ world (Users’ needs, links and connections, institutional stability)
• Recognize the importance of troubleshooting information (Users’ needs, links and connections, learning)
• Ensure that users can find the information they need (Users’ needs, learning, links and connections)
Source: http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/Resources/eNews2012-‐12JHackos.pdf
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The Problem with Minimalism
Many of us who espouse these principles don’t know them well enough
" But John Carroll, who created minimalism, said: " People using products are most interested in getting real work done. " People best learn about product use by doing something rather than reading about something.
“What often goes wrong with information that violates the first minimalism principles is a focus on using a product’s interface rather than achieving real goals and completing real work. “ -JoAnn Hackos
Source: JoAnn Hackos
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It’s Not the Same Thing!
• We create assistance for users that tells them how to perform useful, real work. That’s an important part of our added value.
• With traditional “static” manuals, we assume that the documentation provides meaning (and learning) to the user about the product.
• In reality, it is the product that gives meaning to the docs:
Presentation © 2012-‐2013 Ray Gallon all rights reserved
It’s Not the Same Thing!
• We create assistance for users that tells them how to perform useful, real work. That’s an important part of our added value.
• With traditional “static” manuals, we assume that the documentation provides meaning (and learning) to the user about the product.
• In reality, it is the product that gives meaning to the docs:
• Reading about the product remains abstract...
• …until the user is confronted with the reality of having to use the product. The activities are separated.
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The Solution
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" Can you design a proper embedded user assistance system without working on the interface design?
" Can you write user assistance “content” without reference to, and involvement in, the “non content” of the interface, messages, and other operational linguistic material of the software?
" Do you work in an agile environment? Are you present in design meetings?
" Do you have a common strategy for all the content delivered in, alongside, and in complement to the software?
Embedded UA and Our Role
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Is memorizing a procedure by rote necessary for competency?
" STEP 1"" STEP 2"" STEP 3"
DON’T DO THAT"
NOTE:"
" Is it “minimal” if users need to go
back to the help repeatedly? " How does a user know if s/he even
wants or needs to do this task?
" People best l
earn about pro
duct use
by doing something r
ather than
reading about s
omething.
" Doesn’t it stan
d to reason tha
t when
“learning by do
ing,” we include the
concepts that h
elp the user
generalize to si
milar tasks?
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For many years, in our profession, we have been saying that procedural information must be separated from conceptual information.
“It is an error to confuse a truth about how to analyse something into its parts with a truth about how that thing should be organised and presented to users.” -‐Mark Baker
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let’s teach our users to fish!
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Not Just Minimal – Minimal and Meaningful
" It’s minimal and meaningful if one
look at one task helps us understand many related tasks.
" It’s minimal and meaningful if one
quick look tells us we don’t need to
bother with this (or that we do). " Peop
le best learn ab
out product us
e
by doing something a
nd making
connections in
the process.
" Learn by doin
g – put the con
cepts
where they will be us
eful and
remembered.
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Kanban Information: ���Help Users Learn Your Software Fast
" We want to give the user all the information s/he needs and only the information s/he needs.
" We want to deliver that information when s/he needs it – which implies, at the moment s/he has real work to do.
" The logical conclusion is that user assistance needs to be embedded in the software itself, in such a way that:
" The user can find it immediately, without excessive searching, if s/he needs it.
" If s/he doesn’t need it, it stays out of the way.
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Kanban Information: ���Help Users Learn Your Software Fast
" For the most part, we’ve assumed that means procedures. Concepts are out -‐ too long, too messy, too irrelevant. The user wants to meet her or his contingent need.
" Some users will infer underlying principles and concepts from repeated procedures. Others, however, will not, unless we point them to it in some way.
" We want the user to understand the information in a way that s/he can apply it to other situations, without needing to call repeatedly on the user assistance.
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...AND WHEN????"
Integrated Competency Learning
Adapted by Dr. Neus Lorenzo from Phil Ball & Keith Kelly (2009) Ref: http://ow.ly/dLK8g & http://goo.gl/Ul3A2
+ Individually significant contextualisation (contingency)
+Socio-‐cultural construction (information sharing, mentoring)
+Procedural Memorisation
+ Cognitive construction and process reasoning
+Code: Mastery of the language, interface, iconography...
+Thematic knowledge (SME)
User "Learning Space"
" WHERE IN THIS SPACE DO YOU WANT YOUR
USERS?"
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Double Embeddedness
Embed simple concepts directly into the User Assistance
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Cognition and Context
Context is everything!
" Concept topics remain abstract. Their application seems distant to the user.
" Putting a sentence or two of conceptual information in context (while the user is performing the relevant task) reinforces knowledge acquisition and integration.
" Tasks should also explain why it is interesting to do them -‐ again, in one or two short sentences: Decision Support
Presentation © 2012-‐2013 Ray Gallon all rights reserved
Cognition and Context
Context is everything!
" Concept topics remain abstract. Their application seems distant to the user.
" Putting a sentence or two of conceptual information in context (while the user is performing the relevant task) reinforces knowledge acquisition and integration.
" Tasks should also explain why it is interesting to do them -‐ again, in one or two short sentences: Decision Support
Lots of detail does not necessarily mean more knowledge
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Tip of the day is cognitively unusable because the tip is presented out of context.
Worth noting: on a web site, it's useful for SEO: daily fresh copy feeds Google page rank, and shares from this do, too.
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Double Embeddedness using Progressive Disclosure
• People understand a system better when you help them prioritize features and spend more time on the most important ones.
• Progressive disclosure says:
1. Initially, show users only a few of the most important options.
2. Offer a larger set of specialized options upon request. Disclose these secondary features only if a user asks for them, meaning that most users can proceed with their tasks without worrying about this added complexity.
Source: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/progressive-‐disclosure/
RAY GALLON CULTURECOM
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DEMO
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Tool Tip: a DITA Generic Topic
The shortdesc is what pops up on hover
The abbreviated-‐form is resolved but otherwise ignored in the tool tip
The topic body and link are shown in the tool tip pull-‐down
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Process Query Task Topic 1/2
The shortdesc is reused from the tool tip
This time the abbreviated-‐form is resolved on hover…
…to pop up a keyref that points to a glossary entry
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Process Query Task Topic 2/2
Many of the tasks are conrefs to reusable
components
• This topic groups together related tasks that a user probably needs to do at the same time
• It makes no sense to separate them purely for taxonomical consistency
RAY GALLON CULTURECOM
Presentation © 2012-‐2013 Ray Gallon all rights reserved
Email: [email protected]
Thank You!"
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Please visit my blog, Rant of a Humanist Nerd: http://humanistnerd.culturecom.net
Portions of t
his presentat
ion based on
research
by the Trans
formation Societ
y Research g
roup.