A Case of Exhaustive Documentation: Re-centering System-oriented Organizations Around User Need    

Braun Corporation's home-grown documentation processes served the organization well for its first 50 years as it grew from a local to a nationally-competitive producer of mobility and accessibility products. Now poised to become a global leader in its field, this corporation found its efforts hampered by ineffective and outdated documentation practices, which were hurting the company's competitive advantage. This article describes Braun Corporation's curious mixture of global reach and local isolation. By bringing in a technical communicator with expertise in user-centered design, Braun has begun reforming its formerly exhaustive documentation and communication practices. While technical communicators have incorporated a variety of strategies to develop user-centered and task-based documentation, less attention has been placed on changing the cultures of these organizations. The case presented here represents a shift from establishing documentation procedures to critically assessing and reforming existing procedures for the global workplace, describing the shift from ineffective and exhaustive processes to effective processes with defined goals and measurable outcomes. The article concludes with an inventory for determining whether other organizations are over-documenting processes and products, and offers suggestions for creating better documentation procedures.

Salvo, Michael J., Meredith W. Zoetewey and Kate Agena. Technical Communication Online (2007). Articles>Documentation>Management>User Centered Design

Clash of the Titans: Agile and UCD

Agile software development has become fairly popular in the last few years, leaving many UX professionals wondering how user-centered design (UCD) can fit into an extremely fast-paced development process that uses little documentation. User-centered design can involve a variety of techniques that provide insights into users' wants, needs, and goals, including ethnography, contextual inquiry, contextual interviewing, usability testing, task analysis, and others. But all of these take time--time that an agile development process might not allow. There is hope, though. Agile and UCD methods are not completely at odds with each other--and in some cases, agile development can even enable a more user-centered approach. By taking the time to understand the differences and similarities between agile development and UCD, it's possible to devise a process that is both user-centered and agile.

Cecil, Richard F. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Agile

Cognitive Psychology and Information Architecture: From Theory to Practice

What do cognitive psychology and information architecture have in common? Actually there is a good deal of common ground between the two disciplines. Certainly, having a background in cognitive psychology supports the practice of information architecture, and it is precisely those interconnections and support that will be explored.

Withrow, Jason and Mark Geljon. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>User Centered Design>Cognitive Psychology

Collaboration Sessions: How to Lead Multidisciplinary Teams, Generate Buy-In, and Create Unified Design Views in Compressed Timeframes

I have participated in, led, and suffered major website redesign efforts. Whether at process-heavy consultancies, notable product companies, or design studios, all teams experience the same points of pain: late feedback, lack of common design vision, and complaints that individuals or teams didn’t have enough input.

Verhage, Sasha. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Usability>User Centered Design

Collecting and Incorporating Feedback from Customers: Making Telephone Surveys Work (for You and for Them)  

There is no question that feedback from customers is a vital input to any information-development process. To try to develop good and useful information without knowing how customers use (or intend to use) it is to work in a vacuum. To produce and deliver information and to ignore the follow-up activity of checking customers use of and satisfaction with the information is nothing less than gross negligence.

Grice, Roger A. and Lenore S. Ridgway. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>User Centered Design>Assessment>Surveys

Comics for Consumer Communication: Reaching Users with Word and Image

The rising popularity of the comic as an internal communication device for designers has increased our ability to engage our stakeholders as we build interfaces. Yet, social service agencies looking to provide services to hard-to-reach groups like immigrants, cultural minorities, and the poor have taken pride in innovative outreach methods. In situations where traditional printed matter is a barrier, graphical methods can be used very effectively to communicate with audiences. From guerilla theatre to testimonials, posters to graphic instructions, users have benefited from alternative communication methods, particularly in situations where education or cultural barriers make it difficult for people to access services important to their well-being and safety. In some cases, the comic book format has been used as a way to help people get access to critical legal help. This case study from my time as a Publication Manager at the Legal Services Society (LSS) of British Columbia (BC) could inspire the use of comics outside the development process.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Document Design>Technical Illustration>User Centered Design

Communicating Rapidly Changing Information  

When purchasing complex software products, users frequently receive large quantities of information; however, to use the product efficiently, they need a visually obvious starting point that helps them locate the specific information they need. With maintained With the quantity and diversity of information, customers need to be able to find the information they need without flipping through endless pages. In order to give the users a starting point in all of the printed and ASCII file information. we created a document entitled the Guide to products, users can use the features available with a new release most efficiently if they have an overview of the major changes to the product and to the information about the product. By using visual devices and creating an overview document. for each release, technical communicators can decrease their costs and increase users' productivity.

Bown, Jennifer and Connie M. Bibus. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Communications and CARE Models  

Customer communication is a key element in a technical communicator's life. Our customers are usually our subject matter experts (SMEs). Yet, customers are more than just SMEs. They are our co-workers, managers, and others both internally and externally that we interface with. In this paper, We start by finding out who your customers are and why you may treat them differently. Following this brief discussion, we then look introspectively into the common communication forms and review different CARE (Customers Are Really Exciting) models that you can use to make your customer communication, whether face-to-face or in written form, more enjoyable.

Damrau, Jackie. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Business Communication>User Centered Design

Communications and CARE Models  

Customer communication is a key element in a technical communicator's life. Our customers are usually our subject matter experts (SMEs). Yet, customers are more than just SMEs. They are our co-workers, managers, and others both internally and externally that we interface with. In this paper, We start by finding out who your customers are and why you may treat them differently. Following this brief discussion, we then look introspectively into the common communication forms and review different CARE (Customers Are Really Exciting) models that you can use to make your customer communication, whether face-to-face or in written form, more enjoyable.

Damrau, Jackie. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Business Communication>User Centered Design

Comparative User-Focused Evaluation of User Guides: A Case Study    

A comparative evaluation of two user guides,--the document traditionally used by a company and a model document designed on the basis of research results and recommendations,--was carried out using a number of complementary approaches focusing on the user. The quality and suitability of these documents for the target audience were assessed in terms of content, structure, presence of certain organizational devices (such as headings) and pictures included. The results revealed that the model document was more attractive, more efficient, and better adapted to users' needs, thanks to its modular organization (being structured according to "functions"), a large number of pictures, the presence of headings, and rationalization of the vocabulary used.

Ganier, Franck. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Documentation>Assessment>User Centered Design

Conducting Usability Studies at User Group Meetings  

In this day and age, getting closer to your user base is imperative for creating user-centric documentation. This paper discusses how the Technical Publications group at Mentor Graphics tapped into their annual User Group meeting (MUG) to conduct usability studies. We cover: Convincing management of the ROI of participating in the User Group meeting; establishing relationships with meeting organizers; defining proper "protocol" for interacting with users and other meeting attendees; planning for and dealing with equipment setup; recruiting users to the usability lab; considering and acquiring incentives for usability lab participants.

Yaspo, Catherine and Sarah E. Leritz-Higgins. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>User Centered Design

Content Management Systems: Don't Automate the Misery

Few organizations have seen much good come of content-management BPR initiatives so far. Of the many reasons for these failures, one stands out: these BPR initiatives—and the systems they spawn—are focused on realizing organizational objectives without sufficient regard for the context, habits, and goals of the people who will actually use the system.

Fore, David. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Articles>Content Management>User Centered Design

Crafting a User Experience Curriculum

It isn’t often that one has the opportunity to create a course about user experience, let alone an entire sequence of user experience courses. Jason Withrow's opportunity forced him to examine his perceptions of the user experience industry.

Withrow, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Education>User Experience>User Centered Design

Crappy Personas vs. Robust Personas

If you're just going to guess on the personas, why bother? Just design for yourself, like the 37Signals team does. However, when you do the field studies, you create relationships with the people in your research. You can return to those people and ask them questions. You can learn about the things they do.

Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas

Creating User-Friendly Documentation

We often hear that users do not read documents. To lure readers into reading our documents, we must make documents user-friendly.

Bhatia, Neeraj. Indus (2002). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Technical Writing

Critic to Creator: Recognizing Good Design

All too often, people in our field focus so much on pointing out the egregious interaction design mistakes that make it to market, we forget to pay attention to the good design that exists. Not only does it make our profession look bad if we are always complaining, but it also makes us less effective.

Calde, Steve. Cooper Interaction Design (2003). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Interaction Design

Crossing the Chasm: Promoting Usability in the Software Development Community

User-centered design should be a core part of every software development effort yet, despite its well-documented paybacks, it has yet to be widely adopted. Too often, user-centered design remains the province of visionaries rather than the everyday practice of programmers and analysts. Despite a general consensus on a basic approach to user-centered design (UCD), there is little understanding of the process and how it fits into larger software development methodologies.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2000). Articles>User Centered Design>Programming

Cues, The Golden Retriever

Jamie Owen explores how we can best utilize cues in our work by understanding how memory, cognitive psychology, and multimedia research affect how information is encoded and retrieved.

Owen, Jamie. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Information Design>User Centered Design>Cognitive Psychology

Customer Partnering: Another Way to Gather User Data  

Information developers have been using user-centered design principles for some time now. Many of the techniques available, however, do not provide the depth of knowledge needed to design more complex information products. Customer partnering sessions take place ofer a period of three or four months, allowing information developers to learn more about customer needs and how information products are used. Customer partnering relationships benefit both the company that funds the sessions and the customers who attend them.

Elser, Arthur G. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design

Customer Partnering: Data Gathering for Complex Online Documentation  

Technical communicators today must document complex applications used in complex environments. Information about users and use models is important under these conditions, especially if documentation will be presented online. Customer partnering, a method of information gathering that supplements surveys, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and interviews, provides a way of involving the users of complex applications in the design of information delivery systems. We used this method to help a client gather important information about user and use models and design a new information library for complex server computer systems.

Hackos, JoAnn T., Molly Hammar and Arthur Elser. ComTech Services (1997). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Collaboration

Customer Satisfaction Measurement  

What are the best ways to measure customer satisfaction? Wiley shares some of her ideas.

Wiley, Ann L. Intercom (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Surveys

Customer Storytelling at the Heart of Business Success

We create personas to build upon that platform by bringing individuals within a current or potential audience to life.

Experience Planning Group. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Case Studies

Customer Storytelling at the Heart of Business Success

As most of us know by now, customer personas and scenarios are vehicles for helping an organization continuously keep their customers in their line of sight. Traditional segmentation identifies and categorizes a current or potential audience based upon common characteristics, including demographics, attitudes, behavior, transactions, frequency of interaction, spend, and more. They are discovered by “doing the math,” which may include data aggregation, cluster analysis, factor analysis, and other statistical methods applied to large sample sets. And then segments are given catchy names like Savvy Skeptics, Active Balancers, Indulgent Nutritionist, or Trade-Uppers. When done right, segments are statistically derived from the analysis and synthesis of quantitative data and are a solid foundation for customer understanding.

Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas

Customer Support on the Web: Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

Sometimes, when a customer looks for contact information for Customer Support, it is hidden from view or buried beneath layers of menus. Some companies even deliberately hide their contact information, because they simply don't want customers to contact them. So, what factors should you consider if your goal is providing more optimal customer support on the Web?

Szuc, Daniel. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Help