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Spectrum 16 pmc 16 - mobile and tech comm
Mobile technology is spreading beyond just phones and tablets and will significantly impact technical communication. To prepare, technical communicators should define the value they provide, consider new business models, focus on search-based navigation over indexes, write more concisely for mobile, and learn new skills like CSS. In the future, they may need to create true mobile apps, explore new interfaces like voice control, and personalize content based on user analytics. Mobile will change how technical communication is delivered and require adaptation.
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Spectrum 16 pmc 16 - mobile and tech comm
- 1. How Mobile WillChange Tech Comm
- 2. Who Am I? Neil Perlin - Hyper/Word Services. – Internationally recognized content consultant. – Help clients create effective, efficient, flexible content in anything from hard-copy to mobile. – Certified – Flare, RoboHelp, Mimic, Viziapps. – Working in mobile since 1998. – Certified app development consultant and trainer.
- 3. Remember These? Eachtotally changed tech comm.
- 4. Now Consider Mobile… And “mobile” goes beyond phones and tablets.
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- 7. But asmobile spreads, it’s not the mobile device anymore but rather the concept of mobility. “The age of the mobile app is dead… it’s now the ‘mobile me’ experience.” Kevin Benedict Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Tech comm isn’t immune from this change.
- 8. My Focus Today As mobile starts penetrating tech comm: – What do we do now to prepare for it? – What new things might we see in the next 5-8 years? – How will all this change tech comm?
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- 10. Define the BenefitWe Offer Don’t be reactive. Define and demonstrate the benefit tech comm brings to the company’s business and technical strategy. Goal – Make sure tech comm is a part of any mobile effort.
- 11. Look at NewBusiness Models Does tech comm have to be a cost center? Consider Dozuki, online/mobile repair manuals with an interesting twist.
- 12. …New Business Models … continued.
- 13. …New Business Models … continued. Goal – Think outside the usual tech comm business box. » Courtesy of Dozuki.
- 14. Define “Mobile” What“mobile” means for you. – Responsive design? – Mobile-optimized web sites? – Apps? – Something else? Goal – Set clear direction as you move into mobile. – Don’t repeat the mistakes of the early help days.
- 15. Code Properly “Ahack is a one-off; good coding is forever.” Follow proper coding syntax in new projects. Clean up the code in legacy projects. Goal – Be able to take advantage of new mobile tools, outputs, and converters without expensive cleanup.
- 16. Get Techie Getfamiliar with CSS – ideally at the code level but at least conceptually. – Go relative for size units. – Consider srcset to tell the browser what images are available and which to use for a device of a given resolution? – See http://html5hub.com/srcset-attribute-solving- responsive-image-dilemma Goal – Be able to use mobile-related technology to its full potential without having to totally rely on your GUI tools.
- 17. Refocus Our Writing “…often… mobile for a Web application or site is designed and built after the PC version… Here's three reasons why Web applications should be designed for mobile first instead.” – 1. Mobile is exploding – 2. Mobile forces you to focus – 3. Mobile extends your capabilities » Mobile First, Luke Wroblewski » http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933 Goal – Write to the extreme standard of mobile to improve everything.
- 18. Rethink Our WritingStyle Start planning now to make our writing: – Shorter. – More granular and focused. Say goodbye to concepts, maybe full sentences. Consider the effect of screen rotation on design.
- 19. Rethink Excess Content We create lots of content because we can. – But focus on new knowledge rather than legacy. – We can edit content but, at some point, its style will change. – May be easier to rewrite existing content from scratch. – “The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.” (The Highwayman, Alfred Noyes) – To, with apologies to Alfred, this: “It was windy.” Goal – Make it shorter, optimized for mobile.
- 20. Rethink Tables Giventhe trouble fitting tables into small device screens, rethink what tables are and how to use them? Is a table a container for multiple content pieces, only one of which is needed at a time? If yes, can you replace tables with searches? Goal – Look for presentation alternatives that may be more suitable for tiny screens. – Or no screens.
- 21. Consider Changing Navigation Indexes are going away. They’ll be replaced by search. Goal – Face the trend toward search. New interface options are starting to reflect this. – Note Flare’s tripane and topnav skin options in the next two slides and the lack of an index in the latter.
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- 24. Consider Changing Navigation Increased emphasis on search = increased need for SEO. – And a need to store and analyze users’ search data for development now and personalization down the road – Cognizant’s “data halo”. Goal – Embrace the trend toward search.
- 25. Use Up-to-Date, OpenTools Look for tools that support new features like responsive output, and get rid of old ones. Be wary of tools with proprietary features that may not translate going forward. If you use such tools, be wary of leap-frogging multiple versions to get up to date or switch to a different tool. – Such as RoboHelp’s multilevel list problem. Goal – Keep your tools up-to-date, flexible.
- 26. Don’t Get Blinded Keep an eye on cool new technologies. But look behind the hype to see if they make sense technically and culturally. – Consider DITA, or augmented reality and the “Lefty Lucy, Righty Tighty” problem. – See http://joebarkai.com/augmented-reality-righty- tighty-lefty-loosey/ by Joe Barkai, Product and Market Strategist and Catalyst. Goal – View technology culturally.
- 27. Consider Politics Anticipatestaff turnover as you adopt new tools or technologies. – Expect a loss of institutional knowledge in exchange for greater willingness to experiment. Anticipate bumping into other groups, like IT, as you move into these new technologies. Goal – Consider the culture within which you’re moving toward mobile.
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- 29. Moving to TrueApps? Responsive HTML5 output is effectively a web app. But will a responsive help output meet users’ expectations of what a “real” app looks like?
- 30. True Apps? Ifyou do start creating true apps, be prepared to: – Buy and learn new authoring tools. – Learn new concepts. – Revisit old issues like what browser users have, if any. – Visit new issues, like passing help content (data) to or share it with the app.
- 31. New Interfaces Thekeyboard has been with us for decades and works fine, but not necessarily for mobile. Consider keyboard alternatives like: – Apple Siri. – Microsoft Cortana. – Amazon Echo’s voice interface. – Google Now (which offers predictive analytics based on past search patterns).
- 32. Adaptive Content Wordingcan vary by output format – “click” for desktop vs. “tap” for mobile. How to deal with this in responsive design? Use an intermediate word like “select” but that’s often unsatisfactory. Or use adaptive content. Which is now possible through CSS. Demo…
- 33. Content Customization Ifyou don’t use analytics now, start. They’ll give you static information about what users are looking for and can and cannot find. But that information also forms a “data halo” around users that we can tap to personalize the information we provide them.
- 34. Cross-Device State Preservation With the “mobile experience,” might users start reading your material on a PC but want to keep reading on a phone while on the road? How will users be able to continue reading on the mobile device where they left off on the desktop without restarting from the top? Call it “state preservation”.
- 35. Other Breaking Developments… Bendable glass for mobile devices » https://www.facebook.com/ technologyreview/videos/ 10153952349744798/?fref=nf. Samsung TipTalk – “Future of Wearable Comm Offers Greater Call Clarity” » https://news.samsung.com/ global/samsung-to-showcase- three-creative-lab-projects-for-the-first-time-at-ces-2016
- 36. Summary The strategicimpact of mobile on tech comm. – Changing business rationale. – New tools. – New technical skills. – New writing styles. – New problems. – Changing company relationships. – And finally… It’s a cool wave to ride, like online help in the early ‘90s.
- 37. Thanks to… – RhondaTruitt, Sally Martir, Huawei – Mike Hamilton, MadCap Software – Nicky Bleiel and Bernard Aschwanden, STC, co- presenters at Huawei think tank – David Kay, D.B. Kay and Assoc. – Kevin Benedict, Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work – Joe Barkai – George Adams, CEO, ViziApps – Michael Kuperstein, CTO, ViziApps – Charles Cooper, Rockley Assoc.
- 38. Hyper/Word Services Offers… Training• Consulting • Development Flare • Flare CSS • Flare Single Sourcing RoboHelp Troubleshooting, Conversion to Flare ViziApps Single sourcing • Structured authoring
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