Five Ways to Test User Assistance Usability	Sunday
Mary Deaton, Deaton Interactive Design	1:00 - 4:30 pm
What makes Help usable? And how do you find out if your Help is usable? This hands-on workshop will introduce you to five basic methods for determining the usability of a Help system. Methods range from evaluation techniques done by you and your team to those in which you work with users either through structured feedback or direct observation. We'll start by looking at the best user assistance usability checklists, proceed to conducting a user edit study, watch a video of an observational lab study, pair-up to test written procedures, and then practice developing information seeking tasks for a cognitive walk-through with a paper prototype. You'll come away with the experience of doing usability research activities and materials you can take back to the workplace to use on your own user assistance projects. Bring your laptop for the most immersive experience. All the materials and software you need is provided. If you have never done usability evaluation of user assistance, this is a quick, effective introduction. If you have done usability research, this workshop can expand your options by showing you a range of methods that can be used throughout the development cycle. — YOU WILL LEARN — How to create a Help usability plan Define five usability methods you can use to evaluate Help Know how to conduct a cognitive walk-through Conduct a user edit session Select an evaluation checklist appropriate for evaluating Help
User-Centered Design of Context-Sensitive Help	Monday
Matthew Ellison, Matthew Ellison Consulting	10:45am - 12:00pm
Context-sensitive Help is at the heart of what we, as User Assistance professionals, do. And yet surprisingly little information or guidance is available on how to design and write the topics that our users are presented with when they click that Help button or press F1. What do we know about our users when they are at this point, and how can we answer their questions in the most effective and efficient manner? Is it enough simply to list and explain the options that are available within the dialogue box from which they selected Help, or should we be offering something more targeted or task-based? Drawing on latest research and a wide range of modern examples, this session sets out to answer these questions. — YOU WILL LEARN — The most common reasons why users select context-sensitive Help The different ways of enabling users to request context-sensitive Help, and which work best Which kinds of information work best in context-sensitive Help topics How best to present context-sensitive Help topics About the concept of "Keystone Topics" Patterns for linking context-sensitive topics to other topics within the same Help system
Contextual Awareness: Responding to User Actions and Behavior	Monday
Bogo Vatovec, bovacon	10:45am - 12:00pm
The major challenge in designing user assistance is to know when the user will be looking for what kind of information - essentially an impossible task. By building contextual awareness into the interactive system and integrating it with user assistance, it is possible to design solutions that depend on user actions and behavior. This session will explore various options like customization, personalization, adaptive user interfaces and system's learning. Some of these options are available on the market and can be already used, some are still a topic of research. — YOU WILL LEARN — To understand how the personalization and contextual awareness will impact user assistance in the future To understand how personalization and adaptive interfaces work To understand the implications of these changes on the role of a technical communicator
Architecting UA Topics for Reuse	Monday
Michael Hughes, IBM Internet Security Systems	1:15 - 2:45pm
It's one thing to shop around topics that you have already written to see what can be reused; it's another thing to plan and architect to facilitate reuse. This presentation examines three common scenarios for reuse and how user assistance architects and information developers can keep their reuse options open in each scenario: Same topic in different documents Same content within many topics Slightly different content within one topic Examples will show how to use DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) to maximize reuse, but all of the principles discussed in this presentation can be applied regardless of development environments or tools. — YOU WILL LEARN — How to anticipate reuse opportunities How to categorize the scope of reuse How to select the appropriate reuse method
Techniques for Reviewing a User Interface	Monday
Rhonda Bracey, CyberText Consulting Pty Ltd	3:30 - 4:45pm
"Can you just look over these new screens for us? Oh, and can you check the error messages too? It won't take long!" If you've been asked to review a web or standalone application's user interface but don't know what to look for other than checking the text, then this session is for you. As technical communicators, we are often in a position to identify usability problems related to the logical flow, layout, and structure of the interface; inconsistencies in the design; non-compliance with standards and guidelines; ambiguous wording on labels, error messages, dialogs, and onscreen user assistance; performance issues; functional errors; and the like. Rhonda shares practical checklists of things to look for when reviewing an interface, as well as various tools that can assist you. — YOU WILL LEARN — What to look for when checking an application's user interface, including overall design, textual and visual elements, user actions and interactions, navigational links, and the '-ilities': accessibility, readability, usability About some tools that can help automate parts of the review process
Docs to Wiki: Redesigning and Restructuring Content	Tuesday
Paul Mueller, UserAid	10:15 - 11:30am
Static documentation models limit your ability to deliver what the user needs. We often learn critical facts after a product is released, including some use cases that we did not prioritize during development. We need a documentation model that allows us to refine and extend the documentation over time. This case study session reviews the design discussions and strategies used to define the new documentation model for WebWorks ePublisher. During this session, we will examine the issues with standard documentation deliverables and how we implemented a new model and structure to address these issues. The topics we will discuss include goals and planning, audience and information type analysis, legacy content evaluation, information architecture and design, implementation considerations, project coordination and communication methods, and lessons learned throughout the project. — YOU WILL LEARN — Whether a Wiki could be a valuable part of your content delivery model Which major milestones and decisions led to a successful project How tools and templates were used to deliver the final product How Wikis can contribute to changing content models in the future
User Assistance in Web Forms	Tuesday
Luke Wroblewski, Yahoo! Inc.	1:00 - 2:15pm
In the world of Web applications, forms bridge the gap between people and your product or service. From registration forms that welcome new customers to checkout forms that finalize e-commerce transactions, Web forms frequently broker crucial online interactions. But while the Web has recently been transformed by rich interactions and social applications, forms have been slow to evolve. Building on topics in his top-selling book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, Luke Wroblewski will walk you through the latest applications of rich Web form interactions (made possible by dynamic technologies like Ajax) for user assistance. He'll outline design considerations and best practices for dynamic help systems, inline validation, form structure, input groups, messaging, and more culled from international site-tracking, usability testing, eye-tracking studies, and over twelve years of designing Web applications. Luke's talk is structured to provide attendees with an understanding of the right "best" practices for their specific context, so they can quickly go from the quintessential design answer of "it depends" (on the business goals, user needs, and context of your forms) to actionable solutions. Learn how these modern approaches to Web form design can enhance your sites!
Conducting Usability Tests "in the Wild"	Wednesday
Dana Chisnell, UsabilityWorks	8:30 - 9:45am
It's not clear when "quick and dirty" became a dirty phrase in the usability world. There are those that believe that testing must be scientific, and that takes time and money – luxuries not often available to many development projects. But it doesn't have to be that way. Useful insights can come just by having the chance to talk with and observe participants in the most informal of settings, such as cafés, trade shows, and the company cafeteria. It's possible to get valid, useful results without the time-consuming expense of traditional testing methods. In this presentation, usability testing expert Dana breaks down the process of collecting user research data, exploring the must-haves, the nice-to-haves, and the certainly-can-do-withouts. This presentation is perfect for those who have never conducted a usability test. And if you've spent time coming up with your own quick-and-dirty techniques, be prepared to share your experiences. — YOU WILL LEARN — What the minimal steps of usability testing are Where the value comes from in doing usability tests Where it may be risky to go minimalist How to think about the trade-offs What's essential and what might be nice to have
Lessons Learned from Research on "Help"	Wednesday
David Novick, The University of Texas at El Paso	8:30 - 9:45am
This session highlights research results over the last five years that explain why most users don't use help systems very much. This research, based on empirical studies of actual users, indicates that most users tend to muddle through with trial-and-error rather than to use help, and that these users have specific likes and dislikes for help systems. The research also shows that use of help changes as a function of experience with a computer program. The session includes discussion of ways to increase use of help, although research suggests that increased use of help may not lead to better performance. The session will include sharing of strategies for increasing effectiveness of help systems. — YOU WILL LEARN — Patterns of what users do when they encounter a problem What users say they want in help systems Which methods of understanding users' use of help are most reliable How a radical approach to tutorials can increase use of help systems
Personalizing and Customizing the User Assistance Experience	Wednesday
Doug Bolin, Razorfish	10:00 - 11:15am
Our session will be divided into four main sections focusing on real-life case studies and best practices: An overview of the user experience design process for personalized user assistance. These key information architecture and content strategy principles, activities and deliverables will help you guarantee the success of your personalized user assistance. Specific best practices and case studies that show how users can be empowered to dynamically customize and personalize online support, product operating instructions, how to's and quickstart guides. An overview of emerging best practices in both evaluating online personalized user assistance and optimizing user assistance content with three types of cost-effective evaluation. An in-depth globalization case study, one that goes far beyond translation, to illustrate best practices for creating core sets of user assistance assets that can be rapidly and cost-effectively localized and personalized for many different cultures and markets. — YOU WILL LEARN — Core principles to keep in mind when designing personalized online user experiences for user and product support Key success factors for information architecture, content strategy and technical infrastructure when it comes to designing and delivering personalized user assistance How personalized online user assistance experiences can act as powerful branding and customer loyalty tools The role of user generated content and communities in providing personalized online user assistance Best practices for delivering personalized user assistance content online via rich media
Developing More Successful Personas	Wednesday
Tamara Adlin, Fell Swoop, LLC	1:30 - 2:45pm
You've heard a lot about personas, and know basically what they are. In this session, we'll take a deeper look at what makes personas successful..and what almost guarantees the failure of any persona effort. I'll talk about ways to use personas to 'force' important business decisions and clarity in project goals, and show you some specific, practial ways you can use personas on a daily basis to plan, design, and support any product or service you're working on. Bring all your tricky persona questions, and we'll dive deep! — YOU WILL LEARN — The key reasons persona efforts fail, and how to avoid them What to do with personas once you've created them Practical methods to use personas to make business decisions Practical methods to use personas to plan, design, evaluate, and support the release of products Applications of personas to UA
User Assistance as an Element of eService	Wednesday
Bogo Vatovec, bovacon	1:30 - 2:45pm
eService is a term used to define various customer services available online, such as ebanking. This case study will show how a team lead by a technical communicator drove a design activity of integrating user experience for various eServices across multiple channels for a large investment company. — YOU WILL LEARN — To relate eServices to the brand message To define business processes and flows To define user assistance (communication) artifacts To bring it all together
Magic and Mental Models: Using Illusion to Simplify Designs	Wednesday
Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering	3:15 - 4:15pm
As children, we're told the world is a magical place. Babies are delivered by storks. The tooth fairy harvests retired teeth in exchange for currency. Bunnies deliver candies in brightly covered baskets on a spring holiday. The world's adults use magic to explain away the complexity of life. In our work, confusing complexity is the natural result of an unchecked design and development process. Teams work hard, responding to customer requests through incremental improvement and feature enhancements, yet they often end up with a dismaying array of features that make users unhappy. In this entertaining presentation, Jared will share some of his recent research into the craft of professional magic. He'll demonstrate the parallels between the world of magical illusions and the world of digital design, comparing the similarities between professional illusions and some of today's top design techniques. You'll see examples of illusions built into a variety of designs, including those from Microsoft, Flickr, Netflix, iTunes, and Facebook. Jared will also, possibly at his own peril, reveal the secrets from several magical illusions to show you just how the tricks were created and the effects are realized, giving you the ammunition necessary to build illusions into your own designs. — YOU WILL LEARN — How illusions performed by professional magicians follow the same design principles as your computer's file system How designers can create specific mental models to eliminate perceived complexity How simple design tricks can make designs seem to be faster than they really are How whimsicality, attention, and functionality are essential elements to creating delightful experiences