maximising the effect of progressive disclosure

Jang F.M. Graat

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who is talking ?• Jang F.M. Graat

• 25+ years in Tech Comm

• FM, RH, oXygen

• DITA, XSLT, JS, CSS

• Minimalist

• Psychology, Philosophy

• Dutch world citizen

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minimalismbasic principles

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reading is never the goal

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action-oriented

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give the users only the information they need

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support error recovery

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the problem

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what do the users already know ?

various user levels

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which personas ?

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education, experience, ...

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only the user knows what s/he doesn't know

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progressive disclosureputting the users in control

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users know when to ask for more info

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interactive media allow triggers and targets

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problem: changing context

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wild goose chase

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option: disclosable content

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progressive disclosure

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UA meets UX meets UG

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GUI and UA design go hand in hand

Wikipedia: !

"Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique often

used in human computer interaction to help maintain the focus of a user's

attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive workload.

This improves usability by presenting only the minimum data

required for the task at hand."

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basic techniques

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using web technology

tooltips

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expanding text

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drop-down content

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layered content

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embedded videos

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staged information

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guided tours

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some guidelines

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styling and wording create expectations

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for more information click here. !more information !more information: + security settings + firewall options + privacy protection !

import/export options

focus of user's attention

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consistency in styling and location of elements

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always supply a way back

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things to avoid

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stating the obvious

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too many options

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unhelpful advice

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expanding menus

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dynamic menus

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what makes it work ?some good and bad examples

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getting started

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embedded user assistance

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progressive disclosurehow to implement it (manually)

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minimal information that is always shown

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RoboHelp allows drop-down text

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inserting and editing hidden information

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text is marked as hotspot

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the same process can be nested

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drop-down content may include images

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the end result in a browser: only minimal info is visible

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the user can click on triggers to reveal drop-down content

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progressive disclosure

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this method takes time

progressive disclosurelet's automate the process

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* the described automation will be available as a plug-in

for the DITA Open Toolkit

structure + XSLT = magic

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XPath : semantic search

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XSLT : makeover

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task

title

shortdesc

prolog

taskbody

context

steps

step

cmd

info

substeps

stepresult

step

cmd

substeps

step

cmd

info

substeps

a DITA task red: mandatory green: optional

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DITA task in the editor

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standard HTML output

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XSL allows automatic

transformation

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<shortdesc> is changed into

a tooltip

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CSS makes specified elements

initially hidden

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JavaScript links triggers to their target content

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result of the XSLT

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output in a browser

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clicking a + symbols opens the <substeps>

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other symbols open <info> and <result>

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moving mouse over title reveals <shortdesc>

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+ symbol top right opens <context>

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further learning

Nielsen Norman group

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www.nngroup.com

questions ?www.jang.nl

jang@jang.nl

4everJang

blogs.jang.nl

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