Driving Miss DITA: Single-sourcing a Mobile Help System for Truckers.

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www.omnitracs.com

Driving Miss DITA: Single-sourcing a Mobile Help System for Truckers

www.omnitracs.com

Jake EdmondsonManager, Technical TrainingDebbie BodingerTechnical Training Specialist, Staffwww.omnitracs.comJessica Tandy as DITA inflexible, set in her ways, dare I say hard to get along with Morgan Freeman as the cool mHelp system thats going to drive her content home

2Business Problem #2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved3

Less money to invest

Smartphone penetration

Trip sheets & phone calls

No IT or Training people

Too successful

Saturated customer base

Not meeting targets

Too successful

Saturated customer base

Not meeting targets

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedTransportation & Logistics is perhaps the first industry to be completely revolutionized by telecommunications, and we did it 25 years ago

New target audience mom & pop trucking companies with 3 - 10 vehicles; may not even have dispatch systems

Wide range of technical sophistication; many have no experience with commercial vehicle telematics (space we created)

4Understanding our Market & Technology Drivers90%36%81%19%#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedBob: 30-yr route driver, has only a flip phone, just wants to make phone calls

Jan: Android owner, current local driver - 25 stops/day, former owner-operator, phone savvy

5Solution#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedAndroid solutionBYOD7Mobile Applications (Compliance)

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved8Trip Management ( Workflow)

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved9What to expectwe didntexpect

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedBob: 30-yr route driver, has only a flip phone, just wants to make phone callsJan, Android owner, current local driver - 25 stops/day, former owner-operator, phone savvy

10Getting involved nine months early wouldnt be early enough

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedNo contextually-aware helpNo User Acceptance Testing for Help

11Engineering buried the Help button like it was a secret WMD

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedThis is the diagnostics screen 2 layers deep12Optimal video playback across devices would be so easyVideoFrame Rate: 15fps (greatly reduces file size)Data Target Rate (800-1200kbs)Audio16bit/22khz/Mono/64kbsDeliveryFlash: H264HTML5: H264

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedLegal let us put Help content in front of the firewall

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedThere were lots of stakeholders I didnt recognize

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedMobile development, Host development, Field Engineering, Hardware Design, Supply Chain, Carrier Relations, Engineering Technical Support, Hotline, Business Systems, Marketing, Offshore Engineering, User Experience Team, Marketing, Systems Engineering,

15Product requirements shifted right under our feet

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedBYOD would drive us to drink

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedAndroid Android

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved2.2 Froyo 2.3 Gingerbread3.X Honeycomb 4.0 Ice-cream Sandwich4.1 Jelly bean

18You couldnt hear audio in the truck

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedAdd pic of help video thats full-screen, then replace it with a dual-pane image19Displaying an Android on the desktop felt like rocket science

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedAdd pic of help video thats full-screen, then replace it with a dual-pane image20Testing the content#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved4 major platforms

Electric On-board Recorders for 20+ years

Not What, but How

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedWe understand the tasks that the driver needs to accomplishNone of it was in DITA

22

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved23

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedDesign#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved



Default text: Droid San, #333333Bold: Application name Page titleSection titleLinked Text:#3366CC (blue)Fill: #FFFF00

4040

Off: #333333Pressed: #0000002323689338

#F5F5F5, 65

#b7b7b7, 1#FFFFFF, 86

#3366CC, 4#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedYouTube#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved


#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedSo why DITA?So what DITA?#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedThe Holy Grail: single sourcing34

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedThe Holy Grail: single sourcingSure we want mobile, but we also need: conventional web help, printed help, knowledge base articles35^So what DITA?is#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved36DARWININFORMATIONTYPINGARCHITECTURE#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved37No, really...

What ISDITA?#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved38



XMLMarkup language#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedIts a markup language based on XML. Designed to help you re-use your text content in many different formats and contexts. It does this by separating the content from the format.41^NOTWYSIWIG#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedWhat you see is NOT what you get42

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedIf you were writing this in word, it might look exactly like this on the screen as well as on the page. With DITA, the source looks like this: 43Workflow in DITA#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedHeres what your workflow in DITA looks like44

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedStart by editing a text file that contains your content and standard tags that tell the system what function that particular chunk of text serves. For example: step in a procedure, or UI control (something you see on the screen)You can use any text editor, but more likely youll use a tool designed for XML, even DITA, writing, such as Xmetal or Oxygen.45

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedSo, here in Xmetal youd see something slightly friendlier. 46

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedOr you can switch to a view that even fools you into thinking you have WYSIWYG.On left, looks like a TOC. Is really a list of files. Each topic is a separate file. And you can use each topic with any number of maps. So you create your files, you create your map. And then you tell your tool what output you want.47

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedNormally, you output from a map. The map says heres the topics I want in the order and hierarchy I want. Now generate an output.48

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedList of outputs. Webhelp (html). PDF. 49

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedSo whats the problem. Why did we wonder if we were crazy?50

Mobile HelpLimited real estateVariations in screen formatLimited data bandwidthDITACan we deal with these limitations?How do I change the format when the user rotates the device?How does DITA deal with the limited screen real estate?#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedVariations in screen format: dynamic screen rotation51

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedWeb browser rotates the text for you, but doesnt take advantage of the increased width.52

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedWe want a TOC on the left.53

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedA little googling and we have an html snippet to insert in our web pages that dynamically attaches different stylesheets depending on the size of the browser window. One stylesheet shows the with the toc and the other doesnt. But our source isnt HTML, its XML. 54

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedAnd the HTML the DITA/XML tool generates looks like this in a browser (or something like it): puts in the buttons, the green header line, the next/previous. And of course, no rotation.55

The Solution:Customize the DITA Open ToolkitHUH?#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedThe solution: customize the DITA tool kit.56

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedHeres a different perspective on the workflow with DITA. The behind the scenes view. The middle part is what takes your XML and turns it into a PDF or HTML or whatever. Its a collection of java programs and xsl stylesheets. Open tool kit because its open source. Bundled with most xml editors. They use it to generate their outputs.57

...

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedFragment of xsl. General principle.58

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedBut closer to what it really looks like.59

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved. . . And thats still a fragment of a file thats part of this folder structure.60 #2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved. . . And thats still a fragment of a file thats part of this folder structure.61

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved. . . And thats still a fragment of a file thats part of this folder structure.62

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reserved. . . And thats still a fragment of a file thats part of this folder structure.63

Hey, I could do that . . .#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedSo you need somebody who can do this sort of thing64

. . . And it sure would be fun!#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedAnd thinks its fun.65

HTMLXMLXMetalDITA-OTJavaantXSL(T)XSL-FO#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedNeeds a bit of knowledge about all of these . . . 66Why DITA Fits Well with Mobile Help#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedWhy DITA fits well with mobile67

Keep it short

Keep it modulareasy to re-use

Know what type of topic it is: concept, task, reference

Forces using a standard markup

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedDITA requires discipline and that discipline can lead to better mobile help68

#2013 Omnitracs, Inc. All rights reservedDITA gives you flexibility to reformat easily, to include or exclude information easily. Change your mind about format after youve committed to the content.69Jake EdmondsonManager, Technical [email protected] (858) 651-0826

Debbie BodingerTechnical Training Specialist, [email protected] (858) 651-8291 www.omnitracs.com

Driving Miss DITA: Single-sourcing a Mobile Help System for Truckers.

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Transcript of Driving Miss DITA: Single-sourcing a Mobile Help System for Truckers.