Design Challenges in Multi-Channel Content Publishing From HATs

Who Am I?

Neil Perlin - Hyper/Word Services.– Internationally recognized content creation and

delivery consultant.– Help clients create effective, efficient, flexible

content in anything from print to mobile.– Working with mobile since Windows CE and

WML/WAP c. 1998– Certified – Viziapps, Flare, Mimic, RoboHelp.

The Issues

Should tech comm get involved in mobile?– If we don’t, someone else will.

How?– By converting HAT-based help to mobile.– By getting into “real” mobile.

What to expect when we single source our content to “mobile”?– The focus of this presentation.

First, some background…

What Is Mobile?

Mobile

From here…

To here…

Mobile Terminology

So “mobile” is really “the un-desktop”. Before “going mobile,” define your terms

to avoid buying the wrong tool or hiring the wrong developer.– As in the old days re WebHelp vs. Web Help or

HTML help vs. HTML Help.

eBooks

Electronic books a la Kindle, Nook.– Largely linear

flow and design.– Generally sit on the

reader device.– Good for stable, linear material.

Apps

Very focused (micro-tasking) applications for mobile devices.– Native – Follow a platform standard, easily run

on-device resources.– Web – Run in browser on any device, can’t run

run on-device resources easily, may be mobile-optimized via multiple custom outputs or one “responsive” output.

– Hybrid – Combine native and web, HTML5.

Apps and Tech Comm

Little app dev from tech comm so far, in my experience, for several reasons.– “Mobile” is still new in tech comm in general.– Companies aren’t sure of the need yet.– Tech comm isn’t seen as app creators.

Yet apps can be function- or content-centric.

Function-Centric Apps

Differ from “normal” tech comm…

Sometimes weirdly so…

Content-Centric Apps

But we can create these…

How To Go Mobile?

Depends What “Mobile” You Want

The obvious ones for tech comm:– eBooks – ePub, using RoboHelp 8+, Flare 8+.– Web apps (general) – Any HAT that outputs

browser-based help like WebHelp or HTML5.– Web apps (mobile-optimized) – Flare 6+, “mo-

bilizers” like Duda or Mobify, ViziApps.– Web apps (responsive) – Flare 10, RoboHelp

11, Duda, Mobify, others.

Depends What “Mobile” You Want

Or the not-so-obvious ones:– Native apps – RoboHelp 10+, GUI app dev

tools like ViziApps, iBuildApp, appmakr, etc.– Hybrid apps – GUI app dev tools like Vizi-

Apps et al, HATs eventually(?) via HTML5.

What’s Responsive Design?

Device-agnosticism, or… “…use of media queries, fluid grids, and

scalable images to create sites that display… well… at multiple resolutions.”– Implementing Responsive Design, Tim Kadlec

New Riders, 2013 Emerging support in popular HATs.

– Examples from RoboHelp 11 and Flare 10…

Responsive Design - RoboHelp

Note the design changes as the display size shrinks.

Responsive Design - Flare

And again here.

Why Author Using a HAT?

Why?– If you know the tool, you only have to learn a

few new features.– Keep you out of the code.– Set technical boundaries for you.

Why not?– HAT won’t offer the features people expect in a

function-centric app.– Possible code bloat.

Help vs. Mobile –Screen and Content Design Challenges and Suggestions

Screen Design – Orientation Landscape in help, portrait

(typically) in apps.

Control Position Usually at top and left in help…

Control Position But at the bottom in apps for controls that

may change the content – less tap risk…

Responsive Design… Again We can set control positions for different

device types based on “breakpoints”. Notice the

changing control positions, herefrom Robo- Help 11.

Content Design – Text-Heaviness

Help usually text-heavy, apps not.

Text-Heaviness

Though there are exceptions, like this… Cut text – not fat but text – to the bone.

Specific Content Issues Images may be too wide for small screens.

– Can size them dynamically to fit by setting the width to % and height to auto (if available).

– But are they still legible?– If not, can you conditionalize them out?– If you do, does that affect the contents?– May call for greater granularity of content…

Ditto wide or “complex” tables.

More Content Issues… Consider SWFs.

– Won’t run on iOS – must be MP4 or HTML5.– Are text captions legible or need replacing with

audio, which requires multiple versions of each movie.

– What happens to interactivity with low-res pointers, like this?

Still More… Consider platform differences for feature

support and need to rework material, like minimal table support in ebook formats.

“Invisible” problems like tables, graphics, SWFs, popups, etc., embedded in snippets.

Features with no equivalent controls in mobile, like Flare togglers.

Food for Thought Here’s what you have to

work with in the extreme case.

Where does your thumb go? What can you reach? What do you obscure?– If you’re a righty?– A lefty?

More Food for Thought And on the technical side, plan to:

– Switch all formatting from inline to CSS.– Start moving to HTML5 output for responsive

design and (future) hybrid mobile apps.– Design your content for “undesktop-first” via

fluid layout grids. It’s more than just outputting help projects

to “mobile”.

Summary Lots of new technical, design, and output

options to balance.– Define your terms, platforms and differences.

It sounds daunting, but so did the move by tech comm to online help and the web in the ‘90s and still today.

We met those challenges – time to do so again.

Hyper/Word Services Offers…

Training • Consulting • DevelopmentFlare • Flare CSS • Flare Single SourcingRoboHelp • RoboHelp CSS • RoboHelp

HTML5ViziAppsSingle sourcing • Structured authoring

Thank you... Questions?

978-657-5464nperlin@nperlin.cnc.net

www.hyperword.comTwitter: NeilEric