Techniques for Helping the Public Serve Themselves
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Techniques for Helping the Public Serve Themselves
Instructor:
Cheryl [email protected]
An Infopeople WorkshopWinter-Spring 2008
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This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople Project
Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project supported by the California State Library. It provides a wide variety of training to California libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered around the state and are open registration on a first-come, first-served basis.
For a complete list of workshops, and for other information about the project, go to the Infopeople website at infopeople.org.
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Today’s Topics
• Train your customers to self serve
• Criteria for usable help on paper
• Audio as a self-serve tool
• Video as a self-serve tool
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We Automatically Parse Visual Hierarchies
• Good designs get preprocessed before thinking
• What have we learned from– Newspapers– Books– Magazines
• When the conventions aren’t followed it’s tiring for the user
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We Train Our Users
• Not to read
• Not to trust
• No reliable written help
• You build confidence if things work well and aren’t confusing.
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Design Guidelines for Visual Aids
• Easy to see
• Easy to navigate
• Quick to scan
• Accurate
• Relevant
• Clear
• Complete (in relation to task)
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Usability in General
• Make it look simple– Short
• Self-explanatory– Clear and specific title big, bold and centered at the top
of the page
• Make the important stuff prominent– Size, weight, location, box or icon
• Be consistent• Contrast brings attention – use wisely
From Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
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Content and Design Depends On…
• Your audience
• The purpose
• Method of delivery
• How important the info is and what alternatives the user has
There is no one solution that will work for everyone!
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Save the Time of the User
• No jargon• Titles large and specific• Use headings for easy scanning• Chunk to show logical tasks• Consistency• Watch for temptation to add• Omit unnecessary words
Jobs or Employment Opportunities or Job-o-rama
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Writing in Bullets
• Number things done in sequence• Bullet related items• List length three to six entries• OK to leave off punctuation• Parallel construction
Written by Kim Long
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The fact that you know how to find information means that you're systematically prevented from
thinking about information the way your users do.
Mary Ellen Bates
web.utk.edu/~wrobinso/531_lec_interview.html
Youtube video on learning to use a book -youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMRM&feature=related
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Graphics for Emphasis or Clarity
• Draw arrows and boxes
• Images
• Screen shots– Prnt Scrn– Alt + Prnt Scrn
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Who’s Your Audience
• Know your purpose
• Design for end user
• Test with non-library person
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Exercise #2
1. Look over a piece of instructional material– you brought – one of the samples – look at your own library’s website for examples
of instructions of any kind
2. On paper, improve it based on the concepts so far.
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Common Mistakes
• Don’t bold and underline
• ALL CAPS SLOWS THE READER
• Use Title Case for Titles
• Use sentence case for headings– use lowercase for sub-bullets– to show relationship
• Be consistent with punctuation!
• Poor chunking
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Theming Your Help Material
• Consistency– Color– Size– Graphics
• Placement
• Test it with users
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Use Tabs
• When there might be multiple things a user needs help with:– Internet– Printing– Catalog– Database
• Like current web browsers
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Why Use Audio and Video Now?
• Devices are small
• Devices are inexpensive
• No technical abilities required
• Can get decent quality
• They are easy to use
• Customers have devices for playback
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Ways to Make Audio and Video Available to Users
– On a device for in-library use– At a self-serve kiosk – Download from website to portable players– On a computer
• from your library website• from a blog or podcast or media (youtube) site
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$86.58•MP3, WMA playback•Plug-and-play data storage with direct USB•Easy-to-read black and white LCD display•Built-in voice recorder •Digital FM radio with 10 station presets•Includes batteries and earbuds
Phillips1GB Flash Audio Player with Direct USB
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Common Audio and Video Formats
• Audio– wav
– mp3
– wma
• Video– avi– mpg– wmv– mov