30 out of 30 questioned subjects (any size companies to individuals) don't have any proven solution nor process how to handle support. They have tried screencasting, making thorough manuals with screenshots and many more. Most of them didn't even consider offering a documentation, instead they just gave up and provided a phone number for the cost of being stuck on the phone, while they could be doing something more meaningful. We will look at how small UX changes can change the users perception, what tools there are that can help us and our clients. Making our clients happy and us too. Marek, the founder of INLINE MANUAL and long time Drupal developer have faced the same problems while building Drupal sites and one day he decided to fix this problem. During the time while he was looking for a solution, he interviewed many companies and individuals, gathered quite a lot of valuable feedback and insights into processes of others.

1. PHONE IS RINGING
OH
MY
GOD
Marek Sotak
@sotak
@sotak

2. I AM...
Marek Sotak - @sotak
web developer for the past 14+ years
Drupal developer - themer for the past 8+ years
design, research, UX, rootcandy,...
FrontEndUnited co-organiser,...
http://sotak.co.uk – http://inlinemanual.com – http://atomicant.co.uk
@sotak

3. You: Hello, how can I help you?
Customer: I can't login to my site.
Y: Are you sure you used the right password?
C: Yes, I'm sure. I saw my colleague do it.
Y: Can you tell me what the password was?
C: Five stars.
@sotak

4. THE PROBLEM
Once the site has been done
– …
– …
– Provide client with sufficient support
● end-user manuals
● learning resources
● knowledge base
● ...
@sotak

5. RESEARCH
Is it really just us?
How do others do it?
There surely must be a solution
@sotak

6. RESEARCH
Interview calls – 30 subjects
– Drupal companies
– Individuals
– Other companies
Subjects from all around the world
@sotak

7. RESEARCH RESULTS
Hypothesis 1
– Interviews will reveal difficulty creating agile
documentation-manuals for end-users
@sotak

8. RESEARCH RESULTS
All interviewees expressed frustration with creating
and maintaining documentation for end-users with
theirs current solution
40% of the interviewees are not doing any
documentation at all and rely only on the phone call
support
Some interviewees expressed an idea to have a
documentation department – but no budget there
@sotak

9. RESEARCH RESULTS
Hypothesis 2
– Problem interviews will validate our belief that
customers use one or more - custom - alternatives
and that there are no alternatives to a better
application documentation
@sotak

10. RESEARCH RESULTS
NONE of the interviewees have a service/product inplace that they will be happy with. All of the solutions
were semi-custom
All of the interviewees have no process
implemented or are/were experimenting with
different approaches (unsuccessfully)
@sotak

11. RESEARCH RESULTS
Screenshots
30.8% Interviewees stated that they are using
screenshots in documents
sometimes they allow client to react/give feedback
within the document via notes/comments (Google
docs)
everyone expressed high pain level, especially when
it came to updating the docs
@sotak

12. RESEARCH RESULTS
Screencasts
23.1% - often used to show the basics of how to deal with
the applications (overview)
the rest of the functionality client has to deduct
themselves based on the overview screencasts
more popular in terms of happiness of selected approach
re-used screencasts from other sources were often being
used
successful with clients/end-users but failed for developers
@sotak

13. RESEARCH RESULTS
Workshops
held when it was necessary to educate a team of
people
painful and expensive, since there was a preparation
needed and approximately one developers time
Workshops were often followed by phone call support
@sotak

14. RESEARCH RESULTS
Phone Call Support
Interviewees were aware of loosing much more time
on phone support, if they rather had a better
documentation, but since it was so painful
creating one, they didn’t care that much
@sotak

15. RESEARCH RESULTS
well established companies - no idea how to improve
the process
usually there is no budget for creating the
documentation
@sotak

16. RESEARCH RESULTS
@sotak

17. WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS THEN?
Support calls
Support chat
Workshops
Web ticketing
Knowledge base
– Screencasts
– Screenshots
– Solutions
Better UX
@sotak

18. WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS THEN?
Support calls – expensive – approx $12/call
Support chat – still requires person to answer, exp.
Workshops – expensive – lots of preparation needed
Web ticketing – still requires person to answer, $2/iss
Knowledge base
– Screencasts – reusability?,...
– Screenshots – don't get me started here
– Solutions – good content helps
Better UX – won't cover workflows and processes
@sotak

19. MY PERSONAL BEST
Better UX
Self-help support
Knowledge base
● Screencasts
● Screenshots
● Solutions
@sotak

20. BETTER UX
Things that are aesthetically pleasing, which we enjoy
looking at or touching, and which are attractive make us
feel good. And when we feel good our thinking is
more creative and we have an easier time solving
the problems we face. How to use a particular object,
for example.
That is why attractive, beautiful, appealing, aesthetic
objects work better, because they evoke positive
feelings and inspire more creative thinking.
@sotak

21. @sotak

22. UCD – User Centered Design
“In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD)
is a type of user interface design and a
process in which the needs, wants, and
limitations of end users of a product are
given extensive attention at each stage of
the design process.”
@sotak

23. UCD – User Centered Design
A system can be designed to support its
intended users’ existing beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviors as they relate to the tasks that the
system is being designed to support →
increase userfriendlines, usability, ... →
increase sales, reach business goals,...
@sotak

24. UCD – User Perspectives
Needs and wants
Goals motivation and triggers
Obstacles and limitations
Tasks activities and behaviors
Geography and language
Environment and gear
Work life and experience
...
@sotak

25. UCD – Not that
It is NOT just that you have to do
what the user asks for
“Our customer is our Master.”
Tomáš Baťa’s motto, 1909
@sotak

26. UCD – Not that
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill.
They want to buy a quarter-inch hole!”
Theodore Levitt
Harvard marketing professor
@sotak

27. UCD – Disciplines
Information architecture
Interaction design
Visual design
Research
Usability
...
@sotak

28. UCD – Process
Research
Concept
Design
Evaluate
@sotak

29. UCD – Process
Research
Concept
Design
Evaluate
–
Deploy
Learn
@sotak

30. @sotak

31. WHAT TO RESEARCH?
“Micro” approach
- take just one thing and analyse
access log examination
@sotak

34. WHAT TO RESEARCH?
The SEARCH
Needs RESEARCH
The search is one of the most valuable
functionality of the self-help portal
@sotak

35. RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?
Sometimes we take granted that things that
are out of the box on a widely used system
work as they should.
We tend to be lazy
@sotak

36. RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?
@sotak

37. SETTING MY PERSONAL GOALS
Show the team that we don't know much
Showcase research approaches
Make search to be used more often
Make UCD one of the processes
@sotak

38. OUTPUT
An analysis of how the search works
Delivered as a presentation
Sent out to all team members and managers
@sotak

39. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
We wanted to increase the use of self-help
content > decrease raised tickets
We assumed that the search is not working
based on the feedback from some users
@sotak

40. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Making a simple scenario – user story
The ideal simplified workflow
– find the search field
– enter the search term
– click the available action to perform the search - search button
– find the solution on the first page
– --if not found, refine the search by adding a keyword or using filters
– read the solution
– optionally perform any action that might help others (rate the
solution,…)
– exit peacefully with problem fixed and spread how much they loved
the portal
@sotak

41. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Keyword
Searches
Raised tickets
Percentage
Searched again
blank
3000
66
4.5%
2000
lync
1000
33
7.8%
300
nicpassword
900
24
5%
400
mindaling
800
54
4%
220
password
800
32
3%
60
outlook
700
67
6%
340
blackberry
700
12
7%
56
shared drive
700
4
8%
98
headset
600
15
5%
3
@sotak

42. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Total searches performed in last 10 days > 10000 out of
1000000 page views
What is that blank keyword?
Why are people searching for this?
Blank > 4.5% searches – 6% exit rate
It IS an expected behavior! > intention to make it easier
for user to navigate through portal!
@sotak

43. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Reality check, are the filters being used?
Starting page:
search/apachesolr_search/blank?
filters=undefined&retain-filters=1
Filters used page:
search/apachesolr_search/blank?
filters=”content”&retain-filters=1
@sotak

44. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
home – 1100
search – 510
referral – 110
ticket-page – 5
taxonomy – 5
user - 1
@sotak

45. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Home – 1100
There is a problem!

@sotak

46. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Search – 510
There is a second problem!

@sotak

47. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Referral – 110
There is a wrong link on the intranet

@sotak

48. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
Ok, if you remember, we were trying to find out
whether the filters are being used

@sotak

49. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
20
Is the number
how many times the filters were used
Conclusion:
The page does not work as it was designed

@sotak

50. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
So what did we just achieve
by just looking at one keyword, we were able to identify
quite a lot of major problems
the search box might be confusing on all pages
the "blank" page is not working as designed
we found two defects related to search and one wrong
link on the intranet
Conclusion
the basic search user experience seems frustrating and
adds time spent on the site while searching
@sotak

51. THE SEARCH ANALYSIS
And importantly, the points mentioned
are not assumptions
this is what is happening on the site
there are numbers behind it

@sotak

52. RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?
@sotak

53. RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?
@sotak

54. MEASSURING
Define your KPIs based on the goals
- are users searching from HP more often?
- are users clicking search button only?
- are users asking questions?
- are users entering more than one word?

@sotak

55. @sotak

56. @sotak

57. @sotak

58. @sotak

59. @sotak

60. SELF-HELP Portals
Knowledge base
– Effective search
– Categorisation
Web-ticketing
– Support agents
@sotak

61. SELF-HELP
Source: zendesk.com
@sotak

62. SELF-HELP
Source: zendesk.com
@sotak

63. SELF-HELP Portals
Zendesk – http://zendesk.com
Desk – http://desk.com
Uservoice – https://uservoice.com/
...
Build your own with Drupal
Support ticketing system https://drupal.org/project/support
Search – Apache SOLR,...
@sotak

64. END-USER Manuals
Usually exported as PDF, or HTML
Never updated
Never read
All above leads to frustration of the author
@sotak

65. END-USER Manuals
Manuals were here centuries ago
@sotak

66. FACTS ABOUT DOCS...
Documentation is hard to budget
Documentation can't be reused
Documentation is time consuming
Documentation is boring
Documentation is boring
Documentation is boring
Documentation is everything BAD you can imagine
BUT, think again...
@sotak

67. When we feel good our thinking is more creative and
we have an easier time solving the problems we
face.
@sotak

68. Documentation is
ONE OF THE PROCESSES
in web development
to make your client HAPPY
@sotak

69. TAKEAWAYS - research
Start your research NOW with one small thing
Learn from your own work after you launch → post
analysis
Analyse, don't assume too often
Think about users but keep business needs in mind
@sotak

70. TAKEAWAYS - self-help
Users want self-service
Providing a help is part of our process
There is a solution!
@sotak

71. HOW DID WE SOLVE THIS
https://inlinemanual.com
@sotak

72. THANK YOU!
Marek Sotak
@sotak
inlinemanual.com
@inlinemanual
@sotak

73. CREDITS
Prague photo by Grim Berge
Other icons by Font Awesome by Dave Gandy
Historical Manual image - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MS_44_A_8_1v.jpg
@sotak