Michael J. Albers

Web design issues when searching for information in a small screen display

In this paper, we report preliminary findings from an experimental study in which twenty-eight users answered questions by performing strategic information searches on web pages. Pages, which varied in length from 100 to 850 words, were displayed on either a standard, desktop monitor (full-sized) or a palm handheld interface (small-screen). Overall, users took more time to perform the tasks on the small screen interface, with the break in efficacy appearing between 225 and 350 word-lengths. Finally, contrary to our hypothesis, participants were similarly accurate across conditions.

The Technical Editor and Document Databases: What the Future May Hold

Technical editors ensure a document communicates with the reader. With XML, active server pages, and dynamic document creation, Web pages are no longer simple hand‐crafted text objects, but dynamic groupings of text assembled moments before the reader views the page. With dynamic documents, high‐level editing tasks will be, at best, vaguely defined during text creation. To maximize the information content, future technical editors require tighter control over information consistency and content.

Human-information interaction

The technical communicators job has changed from creating a document to creating information appropriate for a communication situation with multiple user groups and highly dynamic information needs. Many of the communication failure issues we consistently see have a root cause not based on how people interact with computers, but with a failure to understand how information is communicated to a person and how they interact with and interpret that information. It is a failure of effective Human-information interaction (HII), which emphasizes communicating information---interacting with, interpreting, and using information---not writing documents, not designing web sites, not generating content. Producing modern web-based information requires a solid understanding of HII to increase the success of creating information which communicates effectively to all readers. The information design and creation must be based on a clear understanding of a persons goals and information needs and how that person interacts with information. Developing information which fits a persons need requires understanding how a person thinks and what factors drives their decision processes. These elements form for the base of an understanding of HII.

Multidimensional Audience Analysis for Dynamic Information

As technical communication gains the technology to deliver dynamic custom documents, the importance of audience analysis increases. As a major factor in supporting dynamic adjustment of document content, the audience analysis must clearly capture the range of user goals and information needs in a flexible manner. Replacing a linear audience analysis model with a multidimensional model provides one method of achieving that flexibility. With a minimum of three separate dimensions to capture topic knowledge, detail required, and user cognitive ability, this model provides the writer a means of connecting content with information requirements and ensuring the dynamic document fits varying audience needs.

Usability of Complex Information Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction

Why do enterprise systems have complicated search pages, when Google has a single search box that works better? Why struggle with an expense reimbursement system that is not as easy as home accounting software? Although this seems like comparing apples to oranges, as information and communication technologies increasingly reach into every industry the demand for easy-to-use work tools continues to grow. An exploration of cutting-edge approaches for evaluating the usability of complex user interaction, Usability of Complex Information Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction focuses on improving design and communicating content to the end user. The book continues the conversation about the evolution of usability, asking how we can design and evaluate these complex systems and the complex work they support. It describes and analyzes approaches to teaching, testing, analyzing, or managing usability studiesapproaches that involve technical communicators making novel contributions to how we think about and evaluate increasingly complex systems. The book contains case studies on different types of complexity, including: A complex work environment, requiring collaboration among different people or a goal sustained over time, and often in the face of distractions, interruptions, and planned pauses A complex information context, one with no single answer, where the data changes dynamically or where the best answer may rely on other aspects of a fluid environment A complex technology, in which people use many different applications in their work and collaboration A complex topic, requiring advanced technical or domain knowledge Even systems that seem simple are, in fact, complex. The shopping interface for an e-commerce system may not be complex, but the databases, business processes, and logistics behind it certainly are. The examination of different aspects of designing and examining complexity presented in this book brings you a step further in developing a deeper understanding of what it takes to make complex systems work.

Information design considerations for improving situation awareness in complex problem-solving

The conventional techniques for task analysis derive the basic tasks that make up user actions. However, in the complex-problem solving environment, attempts to describe step-by-step actions breakdown because no single route to a solution exists. Although individual tasks can be defined, task-analysis normally results in the tasks being divorced from context. However, to support complex problem-solving, the design must place the information within the situation context and allow users to develop and maintain situation awareness.

Design for Effective Support of User Intentions in Information-Rich Interactions

With the rise of Web pages providing interactive support for problem-solving or providing large amounts of information on which a person is expected to act, designers and writers need to consider how a person interacts with increasingly complex information-rich environments and how they intend to use the information. This article examines some of the theory underlying why people make errors early in the problem-solving process when they form an intention. Since these errors are cognitively-based and occur before any physical action, it is harder to analyze their cause or incorporate changes to reduce them in a design. It examines factors which contribute to user errors and which designers and writers must consider to produce documents which reduce user errors in forming intentions.

Tapping as a measure of cognitive load and website usability

This article examines how cognitive load theory applies to website design and then considers using a tapping test as a practical method of measuring cognitive load. By identifying the design elements causing cognitive overload, the designer can potentially redesign the website to reduce it. The results of a pilot tapping test study are discussed which respect to its ability to determine if it can identify points of cognitive overload in a design. The results showed that the tapping test was an acceptable method, which could be easily integrated into current usability testing procedures.

Information salience and interpreting information

The information available for many situations often causes information overload. To help prevent this overload, the designer and writer need to carefully consider the issues of what are the most salient information elements for the reader and what can be done to queue the reader that this is the most salient information.

Multidimensional analysis for custom content for multiple audiences

As technical communication gains the technology to deliver dynamic custom documents, the importance of the upfront analysis increases. As a major factor in supporting dynamic adjustment of document content, the task and audience analysis must clearly capture the range of user goals and information needs in a flexible manner. Replacing a linear analysis model with a multidimensional model provides one method of achieving that flexibility. With a minimum of three separate dimensions to capture topic knowledge, detail required, and user cognitive ability, this model provides the writer a means of connecting content with information requirements and ensuring a dynamic document fits varying audience needs.