Tips and Insights

I recently watched a movie I haven't seen in a long time—The Birds—impressed yet again with Alfred Hitchcock's ability to captivate with his camera manipulation, his focus on audience involvement, and his story's simplicity.

I'm not even going to suggest that creating multimedia training materials and job aids is anything like creating a movie, especially a Hitchcock masterpiece. I do, however, see some parallels with his techniques. For one, developers (or directors) are limited only by their imagination. Computers and technology have made creating videos, animated documents, and simulations available to the average Joe, and if you have techno-geeks in your organization (like we do), anything's possible.

A second similarity is that audience matters. Hitchcock counted on—and courted—the audience's interaction with the suspense on the screen. Though suspense isn't typical in interactive computer-based training (CBT) programs, there still needs to be a focus on gaining the viewers' attention and giving them what they need to understand and learn the material.

Finally, Hitchcock realized a simple story could be more effective than a convoluted, confusing script. Simplicity in work instructions, job aids and training materials is equally important. A multimedia document should include only the information the user or learner needs, employing illustrations in place of text wherever possible.

Knowing these attributes, when would multimedia—which allows viewers to explore the information through a variety of formats including text, graphics, video, images, narration, music, sounds and animation—be effective as a format for your work instructions or technical communications?

• When you need to describe a process that can't be explained with text or static images, animation or video allows you to show fluidity.
• When orientation is cumbersome or dangerous, 3D animation can move the viewer through parts or areas without physically entering them (think of a nuclear reactor).
• When black and white images aren't enough, high-end color graphics can add clarity.
• When you need to see concepts or intangibles, 3D allows you to visualize those spaces.
• When training is involved and retention is imperative, simulations and interactive testing can target a learner through multiple senses—seeing, hearing, and touching—a more effective way to learn than reading alone.

Animations, CBTs, PDFs or web-delivered content can deliver a punch, even if you're not Hitchcock. Just remember to let the end user’s needs dictate the media you develop.

Labels: 3D, animation, multimedia, technical communications, technology, user's needs, visual work instructions

I'm telling you what, even if it is necessary and quick, searching and reading on the Internet feels like a waste of time. Why is it that the same amount of research done at a library feels more like an accomplishment? Maybe that's the curmudgeon in me (or the selective memory that prefers not to remember the directionless wandering I did in university libraries so long ago).

I guess I don’t appreciate the value of having "all this information" at my fingertips. Or the ease and quickness. I still wind up looking at articles or entries and not finding anything that helps. Or I get pulled in another direction by an entry that only slightly resembles what I need.

Our webmaster—Phil—is comfortable manipulating, searching, reading . . . doing all the things that people do on the Internet. He can answer all my questions, solve all my problems, point me in the right direction. Of course, he's also about twenty years younger and grew up with a mouse in his hand.

I wonder, though, if this preference for searching with the Internet has overlooked the social interaction that occurs at a library. In much the same way washing machines have removed us from Laundromats and DVD players have pulled us from movie theaters, our contact with humans has diminished as our comfort (and reliance) on technology has increased. I'm not saying I want to haul my clothes across town to get them cleaned, but I do know technology makes it easy to avoid face-to-face communications.

And that makes me wonder if there are social ramifications for generations that grow up preferring the cyber-world to the real world.

It's not uncommon to see many of our children playing video games instead of heading outdoors. And busy teachers sometimes have to show their third graders the lives of grasshoppers on the computer, where facts and statistics abound, instead of taking children outside for a chance to find, catch and watch the eating, mating, and flying skills of these insects. (Orion Magazine has two good articles on the role nature should play in education.) Speaking for myself, playing outdoors and learning in the natural habitat not only helped me connect to the greater world, it also taught me about empathy, compromise and survival.

Face-to-face communications, first with family, then on the playground and in school, is where you learn to intuit a person's emotions. It's hard to see anger, pain, discomfort, rejection across a computer screen. In fact, across cyberspace, it's easy to say things you wouldn't normally say if you had to look the person in the eye. People initiating taunts or threats in blogs, e-mails, or social forums often suffer no repercussions, and this type of cyber-bullying is on the rise.

This social disconnect can occur in the business world, too. While many people may prefer communicating by e-mail, the benefits of talking by phone, or better yet, in person, outweigh the disadvantages. Nothing resolves a crisis or enhances training like face-to-face contact. For many companies, the guaranteed way to sell a product is by sitting in a room and talking with prospective clients, building a relationship by sharing the enthusiasm for their product.

Here at Bishop, we appreciate the advantages of face-to-face discussions, but we also recognize that as the world expands globally, we have to rely on e-mail, phone, and web conferences to hold some of our discussions. Armed with that knowledge, we work hard to grasp the subtleties of the client's process, identify the issues and help solve problems. We make sure to verify our understanding of the tone and intent of the client, as well as the process. That way, even if our clients can't see our hand motions and nodding heads, they'll know we've listened and understood.

Once again, though I fight technology, I recognize the necessity. Libraries, however, will continue to be my preferred source for information, even though I know the Internet will eventually house everything I need. I just don't plan on giving up the social interaction and camaraderie that comes with searching and reading in libraries for a long, long time.

Labels: face-to-face communication, Internet searching, library, social interaction, technology

In an early posting, I mentioned the idea that sometimes workers don't have time to read or they don't want to read. There's a term for that—aliteracy. Our own Pat Sweeney described this phenomenon in his paper, "Developing Work Instructions for Aliterate Users" (PDF), which he presented to the American Society for Quality at their Annual Quality Congress in 2003. He noted aliteracy comes in two forms: functional and conditional.

Functional aliteracy includes people who have poor reading skills, and though that can be an issue in any work place, the people I'm addressing today can be defined as conditionally aliterate. Conditional aliteracy includes those people who possess satisfactory reading skills but find themselves in conditions that make reading text-heavy material unappealing or impossible.

Let me give you an example of this. Think for a minute about what happens when the computer screen freezes (typically only when a deadline looms). Working on a PC, the first thing I do is push Ctrl-Alt-Delete and see if I can solve it with the Task Manager screen. If that doesn't work, I'll probably reboot the computer. Next, because we're not big enough to have a tech support department, I'll ask the tech-savvy colleague in the cubicle next to me for help. If I'm working from home, I may call the manufacturer's help desk.

The point is, I will run through a whole host of possibilities to solve the problem, and not until I've exhausted all other options will it occur to me to read the user's guide that came with the computer.

Quite honestly, I don't even want to read it because it's not written for me. It's written to satisfy lawyers and auditors. I can never find what I need, no matter how many different ways I try to identify the problem.

Here's what I believe computer companies need to do when they create these user's guides:

• Write like they're talking to an average person—better yet, an average person with minimal computer skills.
• Organize their information based on "how to" do something, not on what features they offer. (Check out what we've done as an example.)
• Make their day-to-day instructions as simple as their assembly instructions:
  • Color-code topics.
  • Use graphics instead of words.
  • Space the text so it doesn't overwhelm.

Writing like this—for the user—might go a long way toward easing the trepidation people sometimes feel when working with computers.

Labels: aliteracy, technology, user's guides, visual work instructions

Today's my first try at writing an online journal. For the most part, I avoid this kind of technology. I don't have a cell phone or BlackBerry, no Game Boy, PlayStation or Wii. I don't even listen much to the radio, and I can live without TV. Most would call me a technology curmudgeon.

So when I look at my job, I can't help but smile at the irony.

Here at The Bishop Company, my job for the past year has immersed me in technology. I've learned page design software, dabbled in Flash and HTML, trained in isometric illustration, created CBT's, manuals, and work instructions--all using a computer that, before now, provided only word processing and e-mail. I love this kind of learning, and I'm surprised at how quickly it comes.

The fact that I have experts surrounding me doesn't hurt. We have artists who can draw a machine faster than it runs, techno-geeks who can dissect sound to the last pin drop, and trainers who know when to demand and when to nudge.

More importantly, what comes with all that expertise is teamwork. We're a team within our company and with our clients. So though I haven't ventured off to purchase the latest game or create a MySpace page, I know that if I did, I'd have the gurus nearby, guiding me through it. And as I bring you more news and views, I'll have this team feeding me knowledge and sharing their stories.

We'll cover several angles of work instructions, including quality standards, tips and techniques, and the use of metrics to measure success. We'll pose questions, pick apart fads and present solutions. So I hope you'll join me on this adventure down Technology Lane, and maybe we'll learn something together.

Labels: technology