a cognitive design for user assistance 1: users become learners

RAY GALLON CULTURECOM

Presentation © 2012-‐2013 Ray Gallon all rights reserved

A Cognitive Design for ��User Assistance

Users Become Learners


Once, we needed to learn to make fire…


Do we teach it today?

Our immediate, contingent needs change over time


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.


OECD: The Future Requires Complex Thinking

Expert Thinking

Complex Communication

Non-routine Manual Tasks

Routine Cognitive Tasks

Routine manual tasks

• Communication • Knowledge


Today’s Software Provides ��Information-Rich Environments


Today’s Software Provides ��Information-Rich Environments

...to a vector of information that actually makes vital decisions for you.


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

"


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


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


And Learning supports Decision-Making…


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.


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


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


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


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:


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.


The Solution


"   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


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?


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


let’s teach our users to fish!


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.


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.


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.


...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?"


Double Embeddedness

Embed simple concepts directly into the User Assistance


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


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


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.


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/



DEMO


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


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


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



Email: [email protected]

Thank You!"

Google Plus: +Ray Gallon Twitter: @RayGallon LinkedIn: Ray Gallon

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.

a cognitive design for user assistance 1: users become learners

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