Designing technical documentation for tablets
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© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
Designing technical documentation for tablets
Ellis Pratt | Director | Twitter @ellispratt | www.cherrylear.com | [email protected]
Maxwell Hoffmann | Adobe Product Evangelist | Twitter @maxwellhoffmann | [email protected]
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
About Adobe
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74 Offices in 43 Countries
Corporate Headquarters in San Jose, California
Founded in December 1982
$4.2 billion in revenue in FY2011
More than 10,000 employees
Adobe donates a minimum of 1% of net income to philanthropy
We simplify complicated, inefficient, and expensive workflows. We enable more engaging, compelling content. We drive greater return from digital media and marketing investments.
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
About Maxwell Hoffmann
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Maxwell Hoffmann Product Evangelist, Tech Comm Suite
Former Product Manager and Sales Training Director for Frame Technology
15 years in translation industry, working on “whatever documents walked through the door”
Trained over 1,200 people in hands-on, scalable publishing solutions
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
About our Guest Thought Leader
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Ellis Pratt Director and co-owner of Cherryleaf
Based close to London’s Heathrow Airport
Working in Technical Communications since circa 1996(!)
Designing technical documentation
for tablets
Adobe Webinar Ellis Pratt Cherryleaf
What we’ll cover
1. About me
2. What makes tablet devices different?
3, 4 & 5. Three uses of tablets, from a techcomms view
6. A SIMPLES strategy
1. About me
Director of Cherryleaf
UK technical writing services company My experience is of technical communication in:
• UK and Europe • IT & medical equipment
Workshops on writing for Web-based apps, iPads & DITA
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
2. What makes tablet devices different?
What we’ll cover
The competitors
Why are tablets popular?
We need to abandon some assumptions
The competitors
Why a tablet? Intuitive to use (almost)
Long battery life
Portability
Bring Your Own Device
Retina screen
Weight
Always on
We need to abandon some assumptions
The screen
“Retina” displays
Greater contrast on screens
Closer to paper than a screen
Tablet screen sizes can differ
Abandoning Assumptions
“The TOC must be on the left”
“Scrolling vertically is better”
Michael Campbell
Abandoning Assumptions
“ As designers, we tend to think that people start at the top left and just move left to right and down the page.
But research shows that isn’t what happens.
People are attracted primarily to contrast, which is one of the key visual principles that has been studied by researchers again and again.
Contrast is created by differences in light and dark, thick and thin, big and small.
For example, headings that are bolder than the text, pictures that are big in relation to small pictures. ”
Karen Schriver
Can we use print composition theories?
Kress and Van Leeuven
We can do things differently
Some print composition techniques now work on screen
We can use a horizontal, paper metaphor
Right-sided navigation is now possible
We can do things differently
“Deep learning” on screen is now possible
It’s haptic
Device can vibrate
Device can be aware of user’s location
You can pinch and zoom to view some content
Three uses of tablets, from a techcomms view
Mobile apps
Mobile web
Mobile documents
3.Mobile apps
Smaller, more focused apps
Often familiar to user
Touch terminology
“First user” Help
App abandonment
Many used only 3-4 times
Help moves to the product description
First user interaction Help
Limited traditional online Help
Leave the app to read Help
Limited help “tools”
Advice from Apple
No settled standards
We need Help, but not as we know it
Flow-based User Assistance
Flow-based User Assistance
Don’t break the user’s flow
Guide and pre-empt
= Help is embedded in the product
Flow-based User Assistance
Assistance is provided in context
It’s aware of the user’s situation
Can advise on a good choice
Apple’s Help patent
April 2012
Apple’s Help “templates”
Carousel view
Shake to change
3D Zoetrope
Gallery of Help examples
www.g2meyer.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5893
4. Mobile Web
Web-based apps
Usually requires a connection to the internet
Can look like an app on the desktop
Or accessed via the browser
Web-based apps You’ll still have:
• Retina screen
• Portrait and landscape mode
• Touch and haptic interactions
when HTML5 is adopted
Web-based apps
You don’t need to learn Objective C
So is there Help in Web-based apps?
There is lots of Help, (under different names)
It is embedded in the applications
H/T Briana Wherry, Alfresco
Social Help
There is a social element
• Co coaching
• Social proof
H/T Brian Wherry & Robert Cialdini
5. Mobile documents
Types of mobile documents
Electronic Flight Bag
Student text books
Magazines
Operations manuals
Two competing models
Format and content are inseparable Publishing
Format and content are separate issues
Technical Publications
2 competing models
“We’re about to usher in a golden age of PDFs on the
iPad.”
Paul Ford @fttrain
via Karen McGrane
PDFs work well
Read in Adobe Reader iBooks, etc
Can pinch and zoom
Large file size?
EPUB
Formatting can be an issue
Tables
Images
Videos must be .mp4 (mv4) format
EPUB in the future?
Embedded fonts
CSS3
Nested tables
Boxed elements
SVG graphics
Text popups
Fixed layouts
HTML5
You can save pages offline
in theory
What about mediums for structured content?
HTML5 may be your best bet
6. A SIMPLES strategy
A SIMPLES strategy Scaleable (to different sizes)
Intuitive to the user
Mobile-friendly
Platform-agnostic
Legalese (right for the platform)
Engaging (to the user)
Single sourced (re-usable, extensible content) H/T Keren Okman, SAP
Summary
Plus ça change (plus c'est la même chose)? User Assistance will still be there, but in different places
We’ll need to deliver content on different devices, in different formats
We’ll be using some new (old) design metaphors
Help Authoring tools and HTML5 will solve a lot of the problems we see today
Blatant plugs
Q4 Workshops on writing for Web-based apps, iPads & DITA Free monthly newsletter Cherryleaf.com/blog
For more information
Questions?
End
(c) Cherryleaf 2012
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
Upcoming Adobe TechComm Webinars
Content Scenarios for Exploring New Information Products, Joe Gollner, 27 June
Find Out How to Write XSLT Statements for XML to XML Transformations in a 5-part eSeminars Series, 28 June to 19 July, Tom Aldous
Expand Your Content Reuse Potential through Indirect Addressing: Using @keys-based Referencing in DITA 1.2 – Nancy Harrison, 11 July
Are You Tempted to Use a Template to Expedite Policies & Procedure Development? Raymond Urgo – 12 July
Are you struggling to create long, complex documents with Microsoft Word? There is a much easier way! – Tom Aldous, 13 July
Part II: Creating an Accessible Layout – Tips to make documents more accessible (structure, colors, fonts, more) – Char James-Tanney, 17 July,
Part III: Developing Accessible Content – Tips on grammar, paragraph, and sentence length, alternate text, and more – Char James-Tanney, 31 July
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Calendar of upcoming eSeminars: http://adobe.ly/xdzOYa
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
Questions and Answers
56
© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
Contact Information
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Information Ellis Pratt Cherryleaf
Blog Cherryleaf.com/blog Twitter http://twitter.com/ellispratt Email [email protected] Web http://cherryleaf.com
Maxwell Hoffmann Adobe Systems, Inc. Product Evangelist
Blog blogs.adobe.com/techcomm Blog blogs.adobe.com/mbhoffmann Twitter twitter.com/maxwellhoffmann
Email [email protected] Web www.adobe.com LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellhoffmann Facebook maxwell.hoffmann1 Facebook As Adobe Technical Communication Professionals Group
Previously recorded eSeminars: http://adobe.ly/qo3pzc
Calendar of upcoming eSeminars: http://adobe.ly/xdzOYa