Techniques for Helping the Public Serve Themselves

Instructor:

Cheryl Gouldgouldc@infopeople.org

An Infopeople WorkshopWinter-Spring 2008

This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople Project

Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project supported by the California State Library. It provides a wide variety of training to California libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered around the state and are open registration on a first-come, first-served basis.

For a complete list of workshops, and for other information about the project, go to the Infopeople website at infopeople.org.

Today’s Topics

• Train your customers to self serve

• Criteria for usable help on paper

• Audio as a self-serve tool

• Video as a self-serve tool

We Automatically Parse Visual Hierarchies

• Good designs get preprocessed before thinking

• What have we learned from– Newspapers– Books– Magazines

• When the conventions aren’t followed it’s tiring for the user

We Train Our Users

• Not to read

• Not to trust

• No reliable written help

• You build confidence if things work well and aren’t confusing.

Design Guidelines for Visual Aids

• Easy to see

• Easy to navigate

• Quick to scan

• Accurate

• Relevant

• Clear

• Complete (in relation to task)

Usability in General

• Make it look simple– Short

• Self-explanatory– Clear and specific title big, bold and centered at the top

of the page

• Make the important stuff prominent– Size, weight, location, box or icon

• Be consistent• Contrast brings attention – use wisely

From Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

Content and Design Depends On…

• Your audience

• The purpose

• Method of delivery

• How important the info is and what alternatives the user has

There is no one solution that will work for everyone!

Save the Time of the User

• No jargon• Titles large and specific• Use headings for easy scanning• Chunk to show logical tasks• Consistency• Watch for temptation to add• Omit unnecessary words

Jobs or Employment Opportunities or Job-o-rama

Writing in Bullets

• Number things done in sequence• Bullet related items• List length three to six entries• OK to leave off punctuation• Parallel construction

Written by Kim Long

The fact that you know how to find information means that you're systematically prevented from

thinking about information the way your users do.

Mary Ellen Bates

web.utk.edu/~wrobinso/531_lec_interview.html

Youtube video on learning to use a book -youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMRM&feature=related

Graphics for Emphasis or Clarity

• Draw arrows and boxes

• Images

• Screen shots– Prnt Scrn– Alt + Prnt Scrn

Who’s Your Audience

• Know your purpose

• Design for end user

• Test with non-library person

Exercise #2

1. Look over a piece of instructional material– you brought – one of the samples – look at your own library’s website for examples

of instructions of any kind

2. On paper, improve it based on the concepts so far.

Common Mistakes

• Don’t bold and underline

• ALL CAPS SLOWS THE READER

• Use Title Case for Titles

• Use sentence case for headings– use lowercase for sub-bullets– to show relationship

• Be consistent with punctuation!

• Poor chunking

Theming Your Help Material

• Consistency– Color– Size– Graphics

• Placement

• Test it with users

Use Tabs

• When there might be multiple things a user needs help with:– Internet– Printing– Catalog– Database

• Like current web browsers

Why Use Audio and Video Now?

• Devices are small

• Devices are inexpensive

• No technical abilities required

• Can get decent quality

• They are easy to use

• Customers have devices for playback

Ways to Make Audio and Video Available to Users

– On a device for in-library use– At a self-serve kiosk – Download from website to portable players– On a computer

• from your library website• from a blog or podcast or media (youtube) site

$86.58•MP3, WMA playback•Plug-and-play data storage with direct USB•Easy-to-read black and white LCD display•Built-in voice recorder •Digital FM radio with 10 station presets•Includes batteries and earbuds

Phillips1GB Flash Audio Player with Direct USB

Common Audio and Video Formats

• Audio– wav

– mp3

– wma

• Video– avi– mpg– wmv– mov