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1. rior to print retrievability Users can retrieve and display information with a keystroke The best thing about online retrieval is that even if you have a large amount of information users do not perceive going from one manual to another Hypertext and other techniques make retrieval a breeze Usability One of the best things about online media is the fact that users perceive online information as the software system explaining itself In contrast a printed manual is physically separate from the system and therefore users might think of it as a hindrance to the task they are per forming with the system The online ability to display context sensitive information has no par allel in the print media Users can get just that piece of information they need at the moment with one keystroke Depending on the user s task context and his or her earlier performance you can even automatically display contextual information Users do not perceive the bulkiness of online information Only what they request appears on their screen Moreover removing the information is usually quick and easy Users however have complained about online usability in terms of them having to turn information off and on to continue using the instructions This problem is eliminated in many new software systems where a small window containing the instruction always stays while users read and apply the information to their application task Bad desi2. Information Design for Improved Software Usability Table 7 2 Matrix Showing Who Uses Which Elements to Perform What Tasks System User Task Clerks Administrators Installation Labels messages user s guide Labels messages End Use Labels messages online Help None user s guide E online tutorial average 2 58 E classroom course average 2 65 Em hardcopy tutorial average 3 0 m trial and error average 4 0 7 4 2 Task or user interface complexity This is about how users will perform the tasks as implemented in a par ticular software system Knowing task complexity is an excellent way to know what types of information users will need and when You will how ever need at least some idea of the look and feel of the user interface which is unlikely to be available at the start of the UCID high level design phase Iteration of the information architecture should therefore continue at least until some user interface is available To understand task complexity you could try a technique described by Doris 5 Using a list of 10 questions Doris set up a difficulty index to describe the tasks users can perform with a software system 1 Does this task require a single key response 2 Does this task require the use of more than one key 3 Does this response require synchronized operation of two or more keys 4 Does this task response consist of a sequence of keystrokes 5 Will users need to reposition
3. the right track The question you are trying to answer is What information ele ments should be provided In other words what sets of topics should be separately packaged for which media To answer this question you should know the following 1 Users information requirements You should know users tasks and task user interface complexity 2 Media characteristics You should know which media is best for what type of information and what user situation 3 Project specific requirements You should be aware of things like resource and schedule limitations that are specific to the project Armed with that knowledge you should do the following 1 Visualize the use of the software system to determine what infor mation users will need and when 2 Pack a set of topics into each information element For this you should also consider various packaging approaches such as task orientation described later in this chapter 3 Title each information element 4 Document the information architecture List all the information elements that you should provide describe what each element contains and show how each element fits into the whole You can place these details in the UCID plan Designing the Information Architecture 97 7 4 Know information requirements Information elements provided should contain just the information users need and expect Exclusion of some information may affect the users task perform
4. usually happens alongside and the same way as the rest of the software system In general online information is also less expensive to duplicate store and distribute Better acceptance Software engineers generally accept online technical writers more readily as fellow team members Online writers them selves accept and enjoy the technical writing profession better because online information is physically part of the software system and because of the various technical procedures such as testing that is involved 7 6 Know project specific requirements We may have a design that is excellent from the users viewpoint Froma business viewpoint however the solution may be infeasible It is impor tant that we strike a balance between an excellent solution and an infeasible solution by understanding the realities of the business environ ment in which the software engineering project exists Some of the business issues you should analyze are as follows E Skills For example is creative talent available for animation design E Tools Are tools available for prototyping an online tutorial 104 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability Em Cost Will this expensive tool pay off in the long term Is the budget too low to produce a complex set of information elements m Schedule Software houses are always looking for ways to reduce time to market Is there time to learn the new tool 7 7 Package i
5. Describes all the commands that can be used at the 0S 2 command prompt Defines the terms used in various 0S 2 information elements Helps users get familiar with REXX language and programming concepts Explains how to use 0S 2 and Windows programs together under 0S 2 Explains how to enable certain programs to run under 0S 2 Provides information about system performance improvement memory management communication ports and so on Explains everything from installing a printer to solving printer problems Multimedia Describes multimedia programs available with 0S 2 Trademarks Describes trademarks mentioned in various online information elements References 1 Constantine Larry L Toward Usable Interfaces Bringing Users and User Perspectives into Design American Programmer Feb 1991 2 Rubin Jeffery Handbook of Usability Testing How to Plan Design and Conduct Effective Tests New York NY John Wiley amp Sons Inc 1994 3 Gould J D and Lewis C Designing for Usability Key Principles and What Designers Think Communication of the ACM Vol 28 No 3 March 1985 Designing the Information Architecture 109 4 Brockmann John R Writing Better Computer User Documentation From Paper to Online New York NY John Wiley amp Sons Inc 1992 5 Watts Doris R Creating an Essential Manual An Experiment in Prototyping and Task Analysis IEEE Transactions on Professional Co
6. Designing the Information Architecture COOK Is SUPPOSED to have said The flour itself does not taste A good nor does the baking powder nor the shortening nor the other ingredients However when I mix them all together and put them in the oven they come out just right for biscuits This chapter is about determining the right combination of information elements that will maximize the usability of the software system The activity is called integration and the resulting design is called information architecture 7 1 What is information architecture The information architecture is the result of the integrated approach to information design It is the blueprint for maximizing software usability via the integrated design of labels messages online support elements 91 92 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability and printed support elements see Figure 7 1 The information architec ture identifies all the information elements users need and expect describing each in terms of content media and form all based on the needs and expectations of users The information architecture helps cut time and cost by ensuring that big design errors are found and corrected early You know it is much easier to cut four chapters from an information architecture than to add three pages to a final draft Just as the architecture plan for a building project coordinates the activities of many workers the information a
7. ance Presenting information that is not required is a waste of time and effort Moreover it worsens retrievability and makes manuals bulky To find what information users need you need to know the users tasks they perform and the complexity of the user interface 7 4 1 Users and their tasks The more you know about users and tasks the more you will know about the information required See Chapter 5 which is devoted to this topic One of the things you should do to determine information require ments is construct a matrix where you list the tasks against the user groups that will perform the tasks The simple user task matrix in Table 7 1 indicates the possibility of each user group performing a task The ranking is on a 0 to 5 scale where 0 indicates that there is no possibility Use this matrix to identify the most important user software interactions In another user task matrix Table 7 2 you could show which user group will use which information elements to perform what tasks It might be useful to summarize here the results of a survey 4 The survey asked experienced users and writers of online information to rank their preference of four instructional elements on a scale of 1 most pre ferred to 6 least preferred Here are the results Table 7 1 Matrix Showing the Possibility of a User Group Performing a Task User Task Clerks System Administrators Installation 2 5 End Use 5 0 98 User Centered
8. des reference cards and instruction foldouts Types of information better suited for the print media include infor mation that E s a lot of text E Contains concepts m Demands careful or detailed reading m Must be available when a computer is unavailable e g installation and crash recovery information m Users may want to take home m Is legal such as copyright disclaimer license warranty and safety information 7 5 1 1 How effective is print media How good is print media Let s review it in terms of retrievability usability and readability attributes Retrievability Compared to the online media retrievability with print is generally slower However there are many techniques you can use to Designing the Information Architecture 101 maximize print retrievability Chapter 13 describes retrievability tech niques which you can consider for your printed information elements Usability Printed support elements are difficult to make available to everyone Often users need to walk up to the bookshelf or library Printed elements can get loaned misplaced or lost They take up desk space One advantage is that most users find it easy to perform tasks online as they read instructions from a printed element Finally there is the advantage of portability Readability If designed carefully printed information elements can have excellent readability Here are certain factors that contribute Resolution is
9. e process of developing printed and online information 3 94 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability E Online documentation should be written after printed documentation The technical communicators reasoning is that the online document is a subset of printed information They also say that printed informa tion contains many different structures such as introduction pro cedures examples glossary and reference The problem with this approach is that online information is not designed specifically for online use For example online text taken from a printed user s guide may not provide the quick how to information users expect while working online E Online and printed information should be written independently The technical communicators say that the same text should not be used to serve different purposes Therefore style formatting and retrieval techniques for online text will be different Even in big companies online Help for instance is often planned and written separate from the printed manual often in another city The problems with this approach are as follows Information provided in say online Help is repeated in say a printed manual when there is clearly no such requirement from the users viewpoint Worse if the Help or manual writer incorrectly assumes that the writer for the other media will cover certain topics critical information could be left out Error message m
10. er organizations Designing the Information Architecture 105 Software orientation If you use this approach you will follow the soft ware system s structure consisting of modules or functions Here you might have an information element each for a major function of the software system 7 7 2 Some tips to consider Here are some tips you should consider m Consider size Avoid packaging a printed element of over 300 pages or less than 20 pages A large reference is not too bad because users are just looking for a specific topic in contrast users may read an entire chapter of a guide E Keep all guide information together but not necessarily in an exclusive information element Depending on expected size and use you can put guide and reference information together in a single information element m Avoid unnecessary repetition If you want three manuals all of which have say over 30 pages of common information put that information in a single common manual m Avoid requiring users to jump from one information element to another E For mainframe software systems users may be clearly defined as system administrators operators and so on Here you probably should not put system administration and operation information together in a single manual especially if users have the option to order manuals m If your software system has a function that lets users make extensive changes to the software s operation you may
11. excellent with typeset pages having a typical resolution of 1 200 to 2 400 dots per inch You can also use good graphic design to enhance readability Size is a contributing factor Size varies but is usually small enough so that two full pages can been seen in one glance Shape is another factor It is predominantly portrait From the software house s viewpoint one disadvantage with print is the production process it demands A separate time consuming and expensive production process is required through an external agency 7 5 2 The online media The online media is the computer screen where support information is displayed The information element is often physically part of the soft ware system itself Information better suited for online media include quick how to information Examples of online information elements are Help tutorial and cue cards 7 5 2 1 How effective is online media At information design seminars I give when I ask participants which media is better most of them would put up their hands for online But when I get down to specific questions such as Is it easier to read on the screen they start thinking again In fact there are people like me who would rather print it and read Just like print online has its advantages and disadvantages 102 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability Retrievability If designed carefully online retrievability is clearly supe
12. for communicating information In the following sections we will look at the effectiveness of online and print media in terms of retrievability usability and readability The World Wide Web is a new media for providing support informa tion Although information appears on the users screens I m not dis cussing Web support information under online media because of the Web s own unique characteristics Today you should consider Web based information elements for your software products The possibilities are enormous including multimedia capabilities and pointers to useful 100 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability Web sites and newsgroups Cost savings are possible for the software house that cuts down on printed information Disadvantages with Web support information are the need for Internet access and slower access to information Video is another support information media It is primarily used for presale demonstration and tutorials The advantage is that it is fairly well suited for demonstration The disadvantage is that it demands a TV and VCR The audio tape media is used but rarely Its obvious advantage over online media is the absence of screen clutter The disadvantage is that it demands a cassette player 7 5 1 The print media Even after the invasion of the online media print media is still used for its many advantages Examples of printed information elements are user s gui
13. gn can create problems If the user interface for an online support element e g Help is significantly different from that of the user interface for the software system users have to learn how to use that ele ment This defeats the purpose of providing Help or other online support elements Bad design can also cover or clutter users working screens Readability Studies have shown that online readability is a loser against print readability Resolution the spacing between pixels on the screen is not yet as good as on a printed page Moreover users cannot easily adjust the reading distance Whereas most paper based graphics can be shown on the screen not everyone s computer will have the required resources such as high resolution monitors The bottom line is that on screen Designing the Information Architecture 103 reading is 20 to 30 slower For many users online reading can result in eyestrain and headache Online readability may be improved in the future when technology advances and become affordable 7 5 2 2 Why developers think online is better Here are some reasons why developers prefer developing information for the online medium Easier to produce and distribute For producing online support elements you don t have to use an external agency whereas for printed support elements you will go through a print shop Of course online informa tion elements have to be put on a diskette or CD ROM However this duplication
14. ight say that how to information is available by pressing F1 When users press F1 all they get is what went wrong information E Printed and online information should be generated simultaneously from a common database The technical communicators say that printed and online documents contain the same information and that this ensures consistency Here are the reasons why you should apply the integrated approach Em Ensures that users have all the information they require in the media and form they need or expect Designing the Information Architecture 95 m Eliminates information users do not need or expect m Eliminates unnecessary repetition of information note that repeti tion may be required from the user s viewpoint E Eliminates user dissatisfaction resulting from the above m Changes the user perception that using support information is an unnecessary diversion m Often results in smaller information elements with improved retrievability Because of interdisciplinary collaboration in UCID when you take the integrated approach within a user centered design process you will have integrated information elements and more important the informa tion elements will be integrated with the rest of the software usability components Users will perceive the overall software system as one single usable system 7 3 Information architecture design process The information architecture should be designed by the technica
15. l writing manager or senior technical writers in consultation with the usability engineer and the programming team The initial information architecture is designed during the UCID high level design phase It should be improved based on task user interface complexity data which may be available later in the project Integration clearly is the way to maximize software usability Unfor tunately there is no single right mix of information elements a prede termined set that you can provide for every software system For example among the three software products of Netscape Enterprise Server Microsoft Word and IBM Interactive Storage Management Facility everything is different The user interface is different User groups are different Information requirements are different Obvi ously the mix of information elements for each of these products is 96 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability different Similarly you should determine the specific information ele ments required to support the information needs and expectations of your product users Nor can we define a comprehensive IF THEN formula For example I cannot say If you provide online Help for error messages you don t need to provide a Messages section in the printed guide because that depends on many factors that only the project technical writers know Therefore what I provide here is only a framework to get you started on
16. mmunication Vol 33 No 1 March 1990 6 User s Guide to OS 2 Warp IBM Corporation 1994
17. nformation elements Decide what will go into labels Also decide what types of information will go into different message types such as informative messages and warning messages For packaging of support information elements consider the following approaches 7 7 1 Packaging approaches Three standard ways of packaging information are described here They are task orientation role orientation and software orientation Books that describe these approaches recommend task orientation alone How ever you should consider all three approaches to see which best meet users information requirements Note that here we are only talking about high level packaging of information into elements Low level design and writing should always be task oriented irrespective of the packaging approach you implement This is simply because users are performing tasks with the software Task orientation The information to be provided is based on an analysis of the use of the software and is limited to what users need to perform specific end use and support tasks Information that is not required to perform tasks is useless information and is not provided Role orientation If you use this approach you will have each information element targeted at each user group For example you might have a sys tem administrator s guide a user s guide and so on You should consider this approach if roles such as system administrator are clearly defined in your custom
18. parts and three appendixes The four parts are E Part 1 Installing OS 2 E Part 2 Exploring OS 2 E Part 3 Using OS 2 m Part 4 Troubleshooting Here you will find an explanation and action for each error message that can appear when users install the product The three appendixes are m Appendix A Keyboard and Mouse Use m Appendix B Books for OS 2 Version 3 Application Developers Here you will find brief descriptions of a large number of printed manuals that users who develop applications for OS 2 can order m Appendix C Notices 7 8 2 Online Help Online Help is available for every desktop object every menu item and wherever there is a Help push button m F Help Provides information about objects pop up menu items entry fields and push buttons m Help push button Describes most of the object pop up menus and notebook pages 7 8 3 Online books During installation of the product the online information and books shown in Table 7 3 are added to the Information folder 108 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability Table 7 3 Information Elements for IBM OS 2 Warp Information Element Description Master Help Index Command Reference Glossary REXX Information Windows Programs in 0S 2 Application Considerations Performance Considerations Printing in 0S 2 Provides help for almost everything the user may want to know about the 0S 2
19. pped or covered in another appropriate informa tion element As described in Chapter 1 the usability components of a software sys tem are user objects user actions interaction information and support information Gould and Lewis 3 say Unfortunately these interacting pieces are usually designed separately Definers designers implement ers application writers and manual writers constitute large groups in themselves and are often separated by geography or organization It appears that superior quality can be attained only when the entire user interface including software manuals etc can be designed by a single group ina way that reflects users needs and then evaluated and tuned as an integrated whole What s critical therefore is integration Integration is the software usability driven approach to identifying all the information elements users need and expect and designing evaluating and improving them as an integrated whole In this definition identifying implies deciding on the content media and form that users need and expect from each infor mation element And all the information elements covers labels mes sages online support elements and printed support elements Integration might appear obvious But do software houses integrate interaction and support information Do they even integrate printed and online support elements Here is what technical communicators have expressed about th
20. rchitecture coordinates the activities of a number of writers For the technical writing team it makes information development a more pro fessional endeavor 7 2 Integration what is it why is it important For real usability the entire user interface including all aspects of every interaction with the user should be designed as a single inte grated element of the system 1 Online support elements Messages Printed support elements Figure 7 1 Four tier information architecture Designing the Information Architecture 93 If all the information elements you produce are good documents individually you will maximize software usability right While talking about the reasons for hard to use systems Jeffrey Rubin 2 says this non integrated approach is futile since it matters little if each compo nent is usable within itself Only if the components work well together will the product be viewed as usable and meeting the user s needs Take for example a two color nicely produced user manual that has all the information about your software system Though it also has that small piece of detail that a user is looking for retrieving that detail will take a longer time because the manual is bulky probably with many pages of unnecessary or inappropriately placed information This will only adversely affect software usability Some of the information in that man ual should have been dro
21. the cursor Designing the Information Architecture 99 6 Does this task require numbered steps to explain it 7 Does this task response result in one or more new screens 8 Does this task require a typed response 9 Does this task require a choice from a menu 10 Does completion of this task leave users on a new screen An analysis based on a difficulty index can indicate user interface com plexity In the context of the example software described Doris remarks that the easiest task is Deleting a character to the left which required only one keystroke The most difficult task is Selecting a specific page to print which requires the use of five key responses involves three or more steps results in two new screens requires two typed responses and three menu choices and results in users being left on a new screen Such indications of user interface complexity help you in design ing the information architecture as well as in writing the information elements 7 5 Know media characteristics The medium of information delivery is a decision you make at the time of designing the information architecture To make that decision you must first understand the particular media where users will need or expect cer tain types of information You should also know what kind of information would better go online and what would better remain on paper from the users viewpoint Print and online are the media most often used
22. want to separately place the description of that function so that it is only available to privileged users 7 7 3 Give ita title The goal of the title for an information element is improved retrievabil ity The title can include some or all of these 106 User Centered Information Design for Improved Software Usability E Product name E Content m Approach E Users E Purpose m Company name Many software houses have their own rules for titling manuals IBM mainframe manuals typically have the structure shown in Figure 7 2 Normally companies strive for consistency in titling However it is more important to evaluate titles for their retrievability 7 8 Information architecture the 0S 2 Warp example The example given here is a set of online and printed support informa tion elements for an IBM product It does not cover the interaction information The product s printed information element User s Guide to OS 2 Warp 6 provides an interesting road map to the online information ele ments users may use Let us first take a look at the printed element itself Structure lt name of product gt lt task covered gt lt other gt lt Guide Reference etc gt Example DPX COBOL Application Programming Language Reference Figure 7 2 Titling in mainframe manuals Designing the Information Architecture 107 7 8 1 User s guide The printed information element User s Guide to OS 2 Warp has four
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