Over the weekend, Dr Chris Atherton suggested I look at “the doorway effect”. You may well have experienced walking through a doorway and then finding you’d forgotten why you’d stood up in the first place. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have discovered your brain is not to blame for your confusion about what you’re doing in… Read more »
Category: usability
Measuring the value of Help in desktop applications
One of the challenges for Technical Authors is quantifying the value of what they produce. For example, how can you tell how many people are reading online Help when the software is installed on someone’s desktop computer? One application mentioned in passing as last week’s UAEurope conference, ApplicationMetrics, might be able to provide the answer. ApplicationMetrics… Read more »
Towards Flow-Based User Assistance
Flow theory is a psychological concept that is gaining interest in e-learning. It is a concept that should be also considered in the fields of User Assistance and Technical Communication. Flow is akin to sportsmen being “in the zone” – flow is the situation where people are happiest when they are completely engaged in a task. Online Help… Read more »
Designing documents for the iPad 3: the return of old design metaphors
After a few days of using the new iPad 3, it seems likely that, in the future, documents will be designed to take advantage of its retina display. Below are some thoughts on the new trends we’ll see in the way documents are designed for reading on tablet devices. The paper metaphor It has been… Read more »
Introducing the Head Up Display. Say hello to the future of the menu
The Ubuntu operating system is to replace its application menus with a “head-up display” (HUD) box. According to Mark Shuttleworth, Lead design and product strategy person at the company behind Ubuntu: We can search through everything we know about the menu, including descriptive help text, so pretty soon you will be able to find a… Read more »