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 »
Category: usability
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 »
Help in your line of sight
In an article called “The Future of Advertising will be Integrated“, Mark Suster argues readers’ attention is focussed on text and not the banners around it. This “banner blindness” is leading advertisers to move their messages to “the stream”. An example of this is Twitter’s promoted tweets service, where advertisers can pay for a tweet… Read more »
Help is broken?
Are we at the point when we need to acknowledge that classic online Help files are not working as well as they should – that is, as the primary source of information to assist users when they get stuck? This is not a Don Draper “why I’m quitting tobacco” moment, and this is not a… Read more »