The Hairball of Content

RAY GALLONC U L T U R E C O M

Presentation © 2012 Ray Gallon all rights reserved

THE HAIRBALL OF CONTENT

Ray Gallon

M e m b e r , B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s

Thursday, 4 October 2012


“CONTENT IS A HAIRY, COMPLICATED BEAST”

-‐KRISTINA HALVORSON, INTRODUCING ERIN KISSANE’S “THE ELEMENTS OF CONTENT STRATEGY”



How many people, in performing the job, end up doing much more?

Do you think you are also doing...

Content Strategy?

Information Architecture?

User eXperience and/or interface design?

Marketing?

What else?

How many people get asked for “just documentation” ?



CONTENT STRATEGY

Combined definition: A repeatable system that defines the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance, i.e., the entire editorial content development process, in support of meaningful interactive experiences. -‐K. Halvorson, R. Shefield, R. Lovinger

Software interface

s (embedded infor

mation)

Classic online

help systems

Layered syste

ms of user guid

ance (tooltips

,

popups, over

views, etc.)

Knowledge managem

ent systems

Web sites (publ

ic, intranet, ex

tranet)

...

This is not jus

t for web site

s. We design

interactive co

ntent in a num

ber of locatio

ns,

for example:



INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

The art and s

cience of org

anizing and

labelling web site

s, intranets, o

nline

communities, and s

oftware to suppo

rt

findability an

d usability.

-‐Information A

rchitecture In

stitute

The term used to describe the structure

of a system, i.e. the way information is

grouped, the navigation methods and

terminology used within the system.”-‐Ian Barkershared information environments.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findability
















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Architecture_Institute



























Content Management is a method for organizing documentation and training resources — text, media — into an overarching knowledge model.

IA IS ALSO CONTENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

The know

ledge model

is create

d and mainta

ined

separatel

y from the

actual co

ntent.

We use topic-‐based authoring as a technique

that helps us design architectures to do these

things.

Allows us to provide access to the information based on the model of the knowledge it contains.

-‐Sources: Joe Gelb & Steve Newcombe



USER EXPERIENCE

The user experience is the totality of end-‐users’ perceptions as they interact with a product or service. These perceptions include:

Effectiveness (how good is the result?)

Efficiency (how fast or cheap is it?)

Emotional satisfaction (how good does it feel?)

The quality of the relationship with the entity that created the product or service (what expectations does it create for subsequent interactions?).

-‐ Kuniavsky (2010)

All aspects of the end-‐user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products...

In order to achieve high-‐quality user experience in a company’s offerings there must be a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design.

-‐ Nielsen-‐Norman Group


http://www.nngroup.com/about/userexperience.html

http://www.nngroup.com/about/userexperience.html


Content is just stuff we write, isn’t it?



DESIGNING USER ASSISTANCE - EXPERIENCE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TAXONOMY

Engineers think functionally -‐ users think experientially, i.e. by task.

We create assistance for users that tells them how to perform tasks. That’s an important part of our added value.

With traditional “static” documentation, the product gives meaning to the docs.

Users’ experience with the product takes them from the abstract realm of reading about the product...

to the reality of performance.

For software, the obvious next step was to embed the user assistance in the product itself. Minimalism + Structured Authoring make this doable.



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?

QUESTIONS FOR EMBEDDED UA



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?

QUESTIONS FOR EMBEDDED UA

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR

THESE THINGS?

ARE THEY CONTENT?Thursday, 4 October 2012


LET’S LOOK AT MINIMALISM

Two major ideas to minimalism:Don’t waste user’s time with unnecessary detail, especially concepts

Save money in production and localization

If user only learns by rote, s/he won’t be able to extrapolate to new situations -‐ has to come back to the help to find a new procedure.

Does this help the user?



IS MEMORIZING A PROCEDURE BY ROTE NECESSARY FOR COMPETENCY?

STEP 1STEP 2STEP 3

DO THIS

DON’T DO THAT

NOTE:WARNING!

If concepts ar

e important, how

do we

include them without

“wasting users’

time?”

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?



LET’S TEACH OUR USERS TO FISH!



DOUBLE EMBEDDEDNESS

So here’s the problem:

We want to give the user all the information s/he needs and only the information s/he needs.

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.

Why not embed conceptual information in procedures?



DOUBLE EMBEDDEDNESS

Right now, you a

re probably sa

ying, “this gu

y is NUTS!”Didn’t anyone tell

you that’s a basic tech comm 101 no-‐no?

NEVER mix procedures and concepts! That’s what amateurs do!

Why do you think we have different DITA topics for them?

Get a haircut! Get a job! A REAL job!

DITA actually does have mixed topics

Give them a bit of decision support and they’ll do the rest!

The DITA Step element includes stepresult and info subelements



GOING BEYOND: EMPOWERING THE USER

When our

embedded U

A isn’t

enough, t

he user c

an:

Search

the Int

ernet

Look fo

r communit

y guidan

ce

Use soc

ial netw

orks to

get ans

wers

Consult

and con

tribute

to cro

wd sou

rced mate

rials

BY EXTENSION, S/HE CAN ALSO...

Intensify knowledge levels for personal

interestPursue related information as a hobby

Extend professional competency independentlyLook to past experiences to find out

what s/he may have forgotten

THIS LEADS TO



GOING BEYOND: EMPOWERING THE USER

A culture o

f information

sharing an

d knowledge

building, in

side and ou

tside the o

rganisation

.

What I do can be useful for others, and what others

do has an effect on what I can use -‐ for example, if a

UTube post has good tags or not.

This changes how we react to our environment, and has social and ethical implications

The user decodes information so

as to reconstruct it. S/he then

recodes it into new knowledge.

This is know

n as

cognitive de

velopment



COGNITION AND CONTEXT

Cultural Context: This is a typical Chinese home page -‐ built to be scanned, not read.




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




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



...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 significantcontextualisation (contingency)

+Socio-‐cultural construction(information sharing, mentoring)

+Procedural Memorisation

+ Cognitive construction and process reasoning

+Code: Mastery of the language, interface, iconography...

+Thematic knowledge(SME)

WHERE IN THIS SPACE DO YOU WANT

YOUR USERS?


http://ow.ly/dLK8g

http://ow.ly/dLK8g

http://goo.gl/Ul3A2

http://goo.gl/Ul3A2


Extrait de l’atlas catalan, école majorquine, ca.

1375 Bibliothèque Nationale de France

IF THE USER GETS LOST, DOES S/HE

HAVE A MAP TO FIND THE WAY BACK? ?



HAVING LOTS OF RESOURCES IS NOT ALWAYS A SOLUTION...

… IF YOU DON’T HAVE ADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE OF THEM

Hidden User Assistance is no Help at all!


Presentation © 2012 Ray Gallon all rights reservedCOGNITIVE-‐SYMBOLIC COMPLEXITY

RICH

NES

S OF TH

E CO

NTE

NT

+

+-

RETRIEVE EXPLICIT INFORMATION

INTERPRET IMPLICIT INFORMATION

REFLECT ON AND EVALUATE THE CONTENT

REFLECT ON AND EVALUATE THE FORM OF THE MESSAGE

TO ENCOURAGE LEARNING WE MUST STIMULATE COGNITIVE DEMAND

APPLY AND USE THE INFORMATION

Bloom’s Pyramid

Adapted from a scheme by Dr. Neus Lorenzo

OPPORTUN

ITY, P

RACTIC

E



DIMENSIONS OF COMPETENCY

Integrated Learning

Literal Content

Communication

Cognition

Community

Complexity

Criteria Selection

Beginner

Basic

Threshold

Functional

Advanced

Mastery Quantity

Qua

lity

When quantity of information surpasses the individual’s contingent needs, the learner experiences confusion, a sense of chaos, because s/he cannot keep track of it all.

In moving from contingent need to confusion, we still learn more.

Interfaces, hardware, software, user assistance, hands-‐on and conceptual combined

COMPLEXITY ≠ CHAOS!



IN SHORT...

Technical communication

Content strategy

Information Architecture

User Experience

Interface Design

Localization

And many more...

...are all examples ofCONTENT WORK

...and th

ey all us

e

cogniti

ve deve

lopment

to

untang

le the i

mpossibl

e

HAIRBA

LL OF CO

NTENT!

The key isIntegrated

Development



GOOD CONTENT WORK YIELDS GOOD RESULTS

Integrated procedures and user experienceEmbedded user assistance

High added Value

CONTENT

Concepts Procedures

Ref: http://www.iaie.org/download/turin_paper_casal.pdf

New Knowledge and Cognitive Development



THANK YOU!email: [email protected]

Twitter: @RayGallonLinkedIn and Google+: Ray Gallon

M e m b e r , B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s

RAY GALLONC U L T U R E C O M

Please check out my blog, « Rant of a Humanist Nerd: »

http://humanistnerd.culturecom.net

NOW GO OUT AND KEEP MAKING GOOD CONTENT!

Portions of t

his presentat

ion based

on research

by the Trans

formation

Society working

group.


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://humanistnerd.culturecom.net/

http://humanistnerd.culturecom.net/

The Hairball of Content

Technology

Transcript of The Hairball of Content