Making user assistance fail-safe is never really going to work. Users have a mind of their own and you cannot force them to read the manuals and follow the procedure. To cure this weakest link in the planning, execution and reporting of procedural work, we need to take the user by the hand and lead them through well-defined procedures step by step, at the same time recording all the user actions and input automatically. In this way, we optimize the work (in efficiency and reliability) and the reporting (by automatically capturing data instead of relying on the goodwill of a user to fill out a survey, or a tired service engineer to write a full report at the end of a long working day). The demo (not included in the slides) shows an application platform running on an iPad (also available for Windws and Android tablets as well as smartphones and web browsers), allowing easy assembly of procedures out of small LEGO-type building blocks. Data is captured as the user is proceedng and only applicable steps are displayed. At the end of the day, performance data (of machines, of engineers, of the procedures themselves) is available for business analists to optimize the business further.

1. © 2014 - JANG Communication - Amsterdam, Netherlands
From UA to UG (+ BI)
Jang F.M. Graat
Amsterdam

2. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
who's talking ?
Jang F.M. Graat
Psychology, Philosophy
25+ years Tech Comm
self-taught professional
DITA, XSLT, javascript
addicted to challenge

3. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
what is this talk about ?
user assistance
user guidance
business intelligence

4. user assistance

5. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
minimalism
only what users need
action-oriented
support error recovery

6. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
optimizing assistance
printed manual
help file
context-sensitive help
user analysis/categorizing
progressive disclosure
embedded help

7. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
optimizing production
topic-based authoring
single-sourcing
automated transforms
conditional content
personalizing info
feedback mechanisms

8. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
modern technology
interactive media
dynamic content
hand-held devices
central storage/servers
usage & usability tracking

9. user guidance

10. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
procedural knowledge
consulting manuals
training courses
formalized procedures

11. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
optimizing the work
user & task analysis
procedures lead users
reduce learning curve
standardize the work
basis for planning

12. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
modern technology
interactive media
dynamic content
hand-held devices
central storage/servers
usage & input tracking

13. business intelligence

14. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
optimizing the business
product improvement
predictive maintenance
service staff planning
equipment optimization
service staff education
customer training

15. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
how to get the data
usability research
customer feedback
service staff reports
surveys

16. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
modern technology
interactive media
capture input/comments
track itinerary
timestamps on sign-offs
collect data in server

17. UA + UG + BI

18. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
one server connects all

19. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
<DIB>
app building blocks

20. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
capturing/reusing data

21. time for a demo !

22. ©2014-JANGCommunication-Amsterdam,Netherlands
questions ?
Jang F.M. Graat
Amsterdam, NL
jang@jang.nl
@4everJang
www.jang.nl