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Ace your user assistance - by Becky Lash, Epic Trends
Connect with your customers-and fuel your sales-through user assistance: technical writing, multimedia, web content, copywriting, usability, user interfaces, demos, tutorials, html help, and online Help.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Jensen Harris of Microsoft Office 12 has found the following:
"Yet, in usability tests we see it again and again: novices and intermediates click around and experiment, experts try to reason things out and look them up in help."
Help is for experts
Monday, January 30, 2006
Designing the user interface for your .Net application just got easier.
"Significant work has gone into the System.Windows.Forms namespace, the heart of the technology that comprises Windows® Forms. The usable surface area of the namespace, comprising public types (classes and enumerations), has increased by approximately 134 percent over the .NET Framework 1.1."
Craft A Rich UI For Your .NET App With Enhanced Windows Forms Support
Monday, January 30, 2006
Leo Frishberg of UXMatters.com writes a useful read about the difference between just getting information and using an application on the web:
"“Though the process of designing and creating application and information space user experiences for the Web is virtually the same—even if the deliverable design documents may differ—their user experiences are fundamentally and profoundly different.”
Designing User Experiences for Applications Versus Information Resources on the Web
Saturday, January 28, 2006
A good user interface requires an obsession with detail.
"The success of a user interface depends on getting the details right. That's not to say that a little bit of fit-and-finish work can save a horrible design, but a good idea won't thrive either unless enough of the little details are right."
Obsession to Detail
Saturday, January 28, 2006
A blogger's interesting perspective on the Search features in Vista and what they mean for usability.
"Search is a big addition, and its nearly inescapable omnipresence throughout Vista point toward Microsoft’s emphasis. The fact that all of these search boxes can also search the Internet with MSN Search also paints a fairly dangerous-looking picture for Google."
Windows Vista setting new standards for Find-as-You-Type searching
Friday, January 27, 2006
The following brief report is an excellent read for getting a grip on how many older visitors might be visiting any given web site. The report also outlines how these folks react to web site experiences. For example, this demographic does not like to download files.
"According to the 2001 UK census, the UK now has more people aged over 60 than under 16. It also revealed that there are now 1.1M people aged over 85.
Webcredible recently analysed and compared the results of 16 usability testing sessions – eight of these sessions conducted with older users (i.e. over the age of 65), and eight with younger users (i.e. under the age of 40).
"
Web design considerations for older people
Friday, January 27, 2006
When I added the latest Windows update, the full-text search for my Windows HTML Help did not work. It didn't find any topics. One of the HTML Help .dll files was no longer registered correctly.
David Liske maintains information at the following link that solves this problem:
Fix For Error HHC6003 (itircl.dll)
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Many software owners like to post their online Help to their web site. It's a great way to promote their product and add lots of content to the web site. One long known problem occurs when you use frames to display your table of contents and index in the web-based Help. Web surfers who click a link in a Google search to open one of your Help topics often see only the topic, and not the table of contents or index.
I found a nice script that solves this problem. The Javascript works in most browsers too. It forces all frames to load when visitors click a link to a Help topic from search engine results. The script is short and does not add a lot of overhead for when your page loads in the browser. Put it in a external .js file if you are concerned about bandwidth costs.
Optimizing frames for search engines
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Luke Wroblewski, principal user interface designer at Yahoo!, writes the following:
"As the gap between desktop and Web applications continues to close, interaction designs previously reserved for the OS are making their way online. Unfortunately, the transition is not always a smooth one."
Bringing desktop interactions online
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The crew who brought you RoboHelp states that their new Help tool, Flare, will be available in late February of this year. MacroMedia bought RoboHelp and RoboDemo. However, support for RoboHelp has been predicted to wan and possibly disappear. No new releases are expected.
MadCap Software
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Jared Spool at www.uie.com/ comments on whether a link is most effective if it contains text or an image. He concludes that it just doesn't matter.
Image Links vs. Text Links
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Joshua David McClurg-Genevese at digital-web.com writes:
"Within any given medium there are unique constraints that can affect the way designers make use of the principles and elements of design. These constraints can be based on a variety of different things including materials, technology, processes and standards in the industry. The Web is no different. Designing for a Web-based environment enacts a set of unique issues that need to be considered before implementation can be successful."
Designing for the Web
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Lately, I have read much about the ribbon and how it will change user interaction in Office 12. Jensen Harris writes about the ribbon in Outlook.
Outlook and the Ribbon
Monday, January 23, 2006
DaringFireBall.com picks their applications of the year. Want to know the number one criteria? Great documentation.
How to create an app of the year
Sunday, January 22, 2006
At boxesandarrows.com, Mandy Lowey describes how you can adapt an existing user interface for a new purpose:
"Organizations now recognize the value of spending time and money on user experience design. Many have spent considerable time and money to develop just the right user interface (UI). So when it comes to adding or changing functionality, they may not want or have the option to do a full re-design because of budget, time, or technological constraints. That leaves designers working under less than ideal conditions.
Specific practices and concepts can assist you when designing for an existing UI. The following projects demonstrate these approaches."
Change It Up!
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Luc Vezina, Director of Product Management, GOT Corporation, writes in Smartbiz.com about how to write email that gets opened and eventually increases your sales.
"The top drivers of open rates are your Subject line, offer and ongoing relevance. "
Which Strategies Improve the Open Rates Of Marketing Emails?
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Are you wondering how you might need to change your application to take advantage of Vista's new look and user assistance features? This short article provides an excellent overview of where to start:
Everything You Know About UI Design Is Wrong
Friday, January 20, 2006
The Chicago Tribune reports that people buy products that they can understand. Itasca-based Fellowes Inc. found that its international reach in manufacturing office equipment came with an unexpected problem: too many instruction manuals in too many languages.
Manuals show way to more profits
People buy products they can understand
Friday, January 20, 2006
The user guides in this contest made me chuckle. Tecstandards.com lists some of the worst printed manuals I have ever seen. The pictures are hilarious. Just be warned: the following article contains content that might be offensive to some technical writers and instructional designers. :)
Worst Manual Contest - 2005 Winners
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds.
Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye
Dave Collins at sharewarepromotions.com pointed out this link that shows you the brevity of 50 milliseconds:
http://www.sanbaldo.com/exp/
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Lukew.com gives the opinion that the Vista interface offers little in the way of new features. Read his report from 2006 CES. I don't think I agree with him . . . yet. I reserve judgment until I actually load and start using Vista. The new user assistance features, such as the new online Help, may prove to be innovative.
Little Innovation in the Vista UI
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
The following article gives an excellent checklist for creating useful dialog boxes, or forms. The checklist is one of the best that I've read.
Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Oops, I broke my own guideline.
Harvey McKay, a nationally known syndicated columnist recently pointed out a study of Dr. Herbert H. Clark, a psychologist for Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Clark discovered that the average person takes 48 percent longer to understand a negative sentence than a positive or affirmative sentence.
What does this mean to the web marketer? You only have a few seconds to draw a web site visitor into action. You cannot afford to waste any of their time. They will leave, if they cannot understand your information almost immediately. This is especially true of visitors who use English as a second language.
So, instead of this:
"Are you tired of wasting time at your computer?"
Use this:
"Save time at your computer!"
Instead of this:
"Are you tired of fumbling around for your files?"
Use this:
"Find files quickly and easily!"
Or
"Do you want to find files quickly and easily?"
As with every guidelines, you can find an exception. Some of my research suggests that an outraegeously negative, over-the-top, Google Ad can entice surfers to click your ad. For example, if you sell financial software, you might experiment with the following language in your Google Ad:
Waste time! Lose money!
Buy our software and see how.
www.money-o-matic.com
This approach can work in certain markets. You can experiment to see if this type of negative ad is effective.
Note: For more information about Harvey MacKay, see his web site.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
The IRS is hoping to make tax time a happier time for all US citizens with a new, improved web site. They turned their web site over to a usability lab. The results are better, I believe.
IRS hopes for happier returns with redesigned Web site
IRS web site
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
My good friend Sue Pichotta of the AISIP pointed out this excellent article about how different countries perceive various colors. More countries associate black with the United States and anger, agression, and coal. Most high tech companies have colors in blue and black. You might want to read the report and consider revising your web site graphics.
Global Market Bias: Part 1
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Now that I've caught up with the current project after being on vacation, I am ready to blog again. I am pretty excited with a myriad of plans for the new year for continuing to write about how to effectively educate and assist your customers.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Getting the text size right is a constant usability issue. This tutorial shows you how to add a text size switcher to your Web pages using PHP and CSS, immediately making your Web site more accessible.
Better Web usability through a text-size switcher built with PHP and CSS
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