the multiverse theory of user needs
TRANSCRIPT
LavaCon
Tanner Volz | Technical Content Manager, iovation
October / 2016
The Multiverse Theory of User Needs
AGENDA
2
Content is Noise Who are Your Users, and
Why? Designing a Modular
Content Experience Managing Modular Content Through the Wormhole
3
Th e N i c e t i e sW h o a m I a n d W h y A m I H e r e
Work stuff 18ish years into tech writing & info architecture Designed & built numerous enterprise-scale info systems for product
documentation & training Personal stuff
Musician and occasional film-maker Nose typically buried in films
Contact info (sell me to spammers and I will find you) [email protected] 503-803-3201
CONTENTBLINDDifferent people need different things to solve different problems
6
Every day we all wade through many thousands of words and images
2009 UC study estimated Americans consume 34 GB of info / day
In 2013, studies suggestedthat average social media users encounter up to 54,000 words & 443 minutes of video per day
We are contentblind
O u r Th e s i s : C o n t e n t i s N o i s e …Yo u r u s e r s c o m e f r o m d i ff e r e n t u n i v e r s e s …
7
We look for keywords, but need help seeing them
Linguistic and design challenge
Users buy products to solve specific problems; anticipate those problems and tailor content, keywords, and design
… U n t i l We F i n d W h a t We N e e dS o h e l p t h e m n a v i g a t e y o u r u n i v e r s e
WHO ARE YOUR USERS, AND WHY?Defining User Personas and Scenarios
9
A deceptively difficult question: Who are your buyers and, more importantly, why do they buy your products? If multiple products, which?
Buyers & users share business problems, but information needs may differ.
For example: Buyer personas: Sign the checks. Sales & Marketing pitches
speak to them. Content must persuade. Tech savvy buyer may read tech docs.
User personas: Implement & validate satisfaction of business need. Technical documentation is roadmap when implementing the solution.
W h o Ar e Yo u a n d W h y D i d Yo u B u y ?W h a t p r o b l e m d o e s t h e p r o d u c t h e l p y o u s o l v e ?
10
At iovation, writers develop user persona breakdown w/ Product, Sales, Marketing, Client Support. Personas include: Fraud analysts study and understand fraud and crime Fraud or risk managers design implementations to
address these trends User experience and web designers balance improved
authentication experiences with risk of bad users gaining access
Web software engineers code the iovation integration into their web or mobile apps (or both)
Ex a m p l e : H i g h L e v e l i o v a t i o n U s e r P e r s o n a sW h a t p r o b l e m d o e s i o v a t i o n h e l p y o u s o l v e ?
11
Design parallel information experiences for each persona. Each persona brings litany of use cases; before you can design a
successful content multiverse, build a user needs taxonomy to understand use cases.
User needs taxonomy maps user personas to specific problems that they need to solve
D e v e l o p a U se r N e e d s Ta x o n o m yM a p p r o d u c t u s e c a s e s t o u s e r p e r s o n a s
User
Use case 1
Use case 2
Use case 3
12
User Needs Taxonomy lays out: Business needs / pain
points Relevant variables,
such as industry vertical
Common challenges Win / loss & financial
analysis Cross-department
dependencies / effects
An at o m y o f a U s e r N e e d s Ta x o n o m yO r , a t a x o n o m y … t a x o n o m y
Use case 1Industry
Region
Business needs
Pain 1
Pain 2
Challenges
Time
Resources
13
Fraud team lead at an online retailer needs help with: Chronic problem with criminals using stolen credit cards… To submit purchases… Resulting in expensive charge-backs or penalties.
User Experience or Web Designer at a financial institution needs to:
Help the Fraud team reduce account takeover… While improving a poor authentication experience… By reducing painful login steps such as captchas.
For these examples, these specifics help us recommend: Where we integrate, and how What initial configuration steps are needed Who will contribute to implementation, and how
U se r N e e d s E x a m p l e si o v a t i o n e x a m p l e s o f p a r a l l e l u n i v e r s e s
14
N e i g h b o r i n g C o n t e n t U n i v e r s e si o v a t i o n e x a m p l e s o f p a r a l l e l u n i v e r s e s
Subscriber 2: Finance
Subscriber 1: Retail
API Reference
Account takeover scenarios are shared
High friction authentication unique to Suscriber 1
Fraud prevention concepts mostly apply to Subscriber 1, but overlap with Authentication concepts for Subscriber 2
Web integration is largely identical; Subscriber 2 also includes Mobile SDK
All API reference material is 100% common
MobileSDK
Account Takeover fraud scenarios
Iovation Fraud Preventionconcepts
Iovation Customer
Authentication concepts
Auth friction
Web integration
Use cases
Concepts
Integration
Reference
15
Wh a t D o e s a U s e r N e e d s Ta xo no m y L o o k L i ke ?N o b o d y s a i d t e c h w r i t i n g w a s e a s y
DESIGNING A MODULAR CONTENT EXPERIENCEModularize content to support parallel content universes
17
Content modules are like single lego pieces; each is one part of a kit.
Similarly, each content module serves one goal: Procedural: How to do something (“Walking to the Bakery”) Conceptual: What something is (“What is a Bakery”) Process: How something works (”The Lifecycle of a Scone, From Sugar
to Sewer”) Reference: List of facts (“Scone Ingredients”)
C o n t e n t M o d u l a r i z a t i o n : W ha t a nd Wh y ?T h e fi n e a r t o f r e c o m b i n a t i o n
18
A topic, or article, collects related modules focused on a single content goal.
Each module is about one aspect of the topic’s goal.
Accomplish this, and you can recombine content modules (aka, cutely, chunks) to serve many different user needs.
Mo d u l a r i za t i o n : H o w D o e s i t Wo r k ?A K A T h e F i n e A r t o f R e c o m b i n a t i o n
Image credit: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/profile/2351-whitefang/
19
Take an article that’s a mess of intermingled content types…
Ta g g i n g D i s o r g a n i ze d C o n t e n tI t ’ s a b i t l i k e o r g a n i z i n g a h o a r d e r ’ s g a r d e n s h e d
Procedure ReferenceA bunch of concepts Some
unrelated reference content
ProcessRandom collection of proceduresProcess diagram that probably should have come first
20
Break it down, tag it, and reassemble it into chunks
Unrelated content belongs in another topic Ruthlessly kill repetition Write once, then reuse, reuse, reuse
C r e a t i ng a nd A s s e m b l i n g Mo d u l a r C o n t e n tC o n s o l i d a t e a n d r e d u c e
Series of related procedures
Introductory concept
Supporting reference material
Process overview with “how it works” diagram
21
Focus: Each module answers a single question. Don’t repeat: Say everything once. Short and sweet: If it takes more than a few sentences to
explain a concept, you may be trying to explain a second concept. Create another module.
Label all modules: Use ridiculously obvious headings that speak to user needs.
Mix it up: Some content needs complex process diagrams. Some need simple reference tables. Use all of the tools available to you.
Templatize: Content, like formatting, benefits from templates. What content should a concept include? Figure it out and make it a template.
Th e A r t o f Wr i t i n g M o d u l a r C o n t e n tT h e r e a r e c o u n t l e s s b o o k s a n d c l a s s e s o n t h e t o p i c
22
A new topic on reducing Account Takeover fraud includes the following modules: “What is Account Takeover” - Conceptual module that
defines Account Takeover. Use it anywhere we talk about Account Takeover.
“How Business Rules Help Stop Account Takeover” - Process module about features we will use (iovation business rules) to solve the problem, with a diagram to illustrate.
“Defining Business Rules to Stop Account Takeover” - Procedural module that walks through setting up the business rules.
“Account Takeover Parameters Reference” - Reference module with all the technical details needed to set up the rules.
i o v a t i o n E x a m p l eB u i l d i n g a t o p i c o n a c c o u n t t a k e o v e r
23
These tenets are all inherited from established structured writing practices. They emphasize semantic tagging of content, strict modularization, reuse, multi-lingual content management, and on-demand content assembly. Read up on these.
Information Mapping: http://www.informationmapping.com/en/ DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture): https://
www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita/faq.php
S t ru c t u r e d Wr i t i n g R e s o u r c e sS e e a l s o …
MANAGING MODULAR CONTENTItalian Herb Mix is fine until you just need some basil
25
Slice / dice content forever but without a way to manage it, this is what awaits you:
Mo d u l a r C o n t e n t i s N o t h i ng W i t h o u t C M ST h e h e r b m i x m e t a p h o r w o r k s b u t w e ’ r e s t i c k i n g w i t h L e g o s
26
W h a t i s C o n t e n t M a n ag e m e n t ?To o l s y o u n e e d t o b u i l d w o r m h o l e s a c r o s s u n i v e r s e s
Image credit: Jeff Pellettierhttp://photos.hgtv.com/photos/viewer/lego-storage-/basement-lego-lounge-with-built_in-storage-system_1
27
Just some of what a good content management system provides: Topic and asset management including versioning and
publishing workflows Authoring with both WYSIWYG and code editing support Extensibility to incorporate web-standard technologies Content reuse down to the modular level Variables for brand names, verticals, etc. Content conditions for different scenarios, such as different
outputs (HTML v PDF) or classes of users Semantic tagging of content, and separation of content from
formatting SEO management, particularly important for public content
D e fin i n g Te c h n i c a l C o n t e n t M a na g e m e n tA b o t t o m l e s s t o p i c ; t h e s e a r e a f e w t h i n g s t h a t m a t t e r t o u s
28
We use MindTouch, a SaaS solution with robust content creation tools, availability and performance, and structured authoring features
Keyword metatags enable us to track both content type (such as “procedure”) and substance (such as “Managing Users”); It’s very easy to find the content we need, when we need it; also ensures excellent SEO flexibility if we take any content public
Our stylesheets (CSS) handle all of our formatting for HTML and PDF; the authoring experience is entirely focused on content
We heavily reuse content to serve different purposes, with variables to manage terminology changes
Permissions allow different users to see only what they need
Ov e r v i e w o f C o n t e n t M an a g e m e n t a t i o v a t i o nW h a t w e d o , i n 5 b u l l e t s
29
We store reusable content (topics and modules) in a dedicated area; all of this can be reused anywhere within the content hierarchy
This is one of the most powerful tenets of the content multiverse: the same content can exist, in parallel, in many places at once
R e u s i n g a n d Tr a n s f o r m i n g C o n t e n tA l l o w c o n t e x t t o d e t e r m i n e w h a t u s e r s w i l l s e e
30
With simple variable statements, brand names change on-the-fly in topics that are reused across product lines.
R e u s i n g a n d Tr a n s f o r m i n g C o n t e n tA l l o w c o n t e x t t o d e t e r m i n e w h a t u s e r s w i l l s e e
31
Using privileges to manage the end-user experience: MindTouch provides great tools for showing different content to
different users Groups of users can be set to see only specific hierarchies or part of
topics User who subscribes to one product only sees content for that product
U s i n g P e r m i s s i o n s t o H i d e C o n t e n tR e d u c i n g n o i s e b y e n t i r e l y e l i m i n a t i n g i r r e l e v a n t c o n t e n t
Hiddencontent
THROUGH THE WORMHOLEWhat does this mean for the user experience?
33
Now that you have: Profiled your
different types of users
Anticipated the unique content needs for each
Broken your content down into reusable chunks
You can build your content universes.
D e s i g n i n g Pa r a l l e l I n f o r m a t i o n U n i v e r s e sR e u s a b l e m o d u l a r c o n t e n t w a s m a d e f o r t h i s
34
Assemble chunks into information universes for all user types: Use variables to target text to use cases – brand names,
verticals, features, etc. Use big bold headers and organizers that target business
needs and make navigation RIDCULOUSLY EASY. For a universe of blue legos:ORGANIZING BLUE LEGOS INTO BLUE BOXES.
Or for a universe of green legos:ORGANIZING GREEN LEGOS INTO GREEN BOXES.
Use permissions to hide topics that a given user doesn’t need, and combine permissions with variables to hide inline content.
D e s i g n i n g Pa r a l l e l I n f o r m a t i o n U n i v e r s e sR e u s a b l e m o d u l a r c o n t e n t w a s m a d e f o r t h i s
35
An integration engineer follows distinct paths depending which product the organization bought from iovation. This is what it looks like to an author. We see all universes at once.
A ss e m b l i n g U n i v e r s e sA s s e m b l i n g i n t e g r a t i o n c o n t e n t f o r d i ff e r e n t u s e r t y p e s
Customer Auth concepts
Fraud Prevention concepts
Customer Auth workflowShared
procedures
Fraud Prevention workflowFraud Prevention
proceduresShared reference content
Reusable content
iovation content repository
Customer Authentication Integration Guide
Fraud Prevention Integration Guide
Help system / knowledge base
36
And this is what it looks like to an engineer working with the Fraud Prevention product.
U se r s o n l y se e t h e i r o w n u n i v e r s e sT h e n o i s e w e t a l k e d a b o u t e a r l i e r ? G o n e
Fraud Prevention Integration Guide
As far as the user is concerned, there is only one universe. It’s linear, easy to follow, and free of noise.
37
At iovation, this is just the beginning.
How to incorporate content hosted in entirely separate systems, withvery different delivery models?
At what point is designingfor reuse more complex than is beneficial?
W h a t ’ s N e x t ?E x p a n d i n g u s e c a s e s t o v e r y d i ff e r e n t u s e r m o d e l s
Q&A