Clever Hamster

Capture Those Brain Dumps

Particularly in Agile shops, it's critical to grab information opportunistically: when that subject matter expert finally comes up for air long enough to discuss that new implementation you've heard was coming, drop everything and grab a basket to catch that brain dump.

By "brain dump" (dump as in download) we mean a person-to-person transfer of knowledge, often under a tight deadline (such as your expert leaving the company!) Sometimes brain dumps are live software walkthroughs, during which the SME flies through the online process, parenthetically rattling off dangers and limitations as well as future enhancements and open issues. It's what we lovingly call "drinking from the fire hose" because the information density is too high to be consumed, much less retained. In short, you're doomed: If you pay attention enough to formulate good questions, will you have taken sufficient notes? If you take good notes, will you have missed seeing the GUI process flying by on the screen?

In my experience, the best way to benefit from a brain dump is to make it a person-to-media transfer, to capture both the audio and visual information to disk so that you can review it after the fact and harvest out screenshots for reference. Use the time with the SME to pay attention actively and ask for clarification, and let the recording software do the work of capturing the details.

But how to record it? Aren't demo recording tools complex and expensive? Yes, those that are geared for formal training deliverables or commercial webinars cost real money; worse, they won't necessarily be easy to use in a brain dump situation, which won't likely take place on your computer (with your licensed recording tool) and your microphone. It can be even crazier when your SME is remote.

Here are a few tips and tools to get you started:

Don't make the SME do anything but dump.

• In my experience, it doesn't work to ask SMEs to install special software on their systems or to be responsible for managing the recordings. Find a way that is completely hands-off on their part. They're harried enough.

Think MP4.

• The MP4 video format is easily shared, uploaded, and viewed across platforms. From your Google account, you can upload this format to an unlisted YouTube video for quick distribution to team members. Done.

Start with what you already have, technology-wise.

• If your company uses Skype for chat and video calls, just use Skype for the demo. Install the Evaer recorder ($20 for unlimited videos), start a video call with the SME, have them share their screen, and record just the remote video along with the combined audio. The SME can demo this way distraction-free, since they aren't doing the recording.

Seek out cross-platform browser-based services.

• Most web conferencing services require a monthly subscription to record demos, but Zoom allows for local MP4 recordings on the free subscription. Create your account, invite your SME to your webinar, and let them share their screen and talk. If it's just the two of you, it's unlimited; for 3-50 participants, you're capped at 40 minutes.

If you've found other cheap solutions for capturing brain dumps, please share!

WritersUA Central takeaways

For my own benefit, I'm writing this quick list of goodies and action items from the notes that I jotted down from the Software User Assistance conference this week:

• Remember "pave the cowpaths" — let users develop footpaths and use those to decide where to put pavers.
• Seek out books from the Visual Quick Start and Missing Manual series.
• Study CSS3 selector syntax for controlling subordinate elements:
• td p { } = styles only paragraphs within table cells
• ol > li { } = styles only items within numbered lists
• h1 +h2 { } = styles only Heading 2s that immediately follow Heading 1
• Study CSS3 for methods to add @content, without JavaScript.
• Breaking news of MadCap buying Doc-To-Help = evidence of client-side tool shakeout.
• Visit Neospeech to hear surprisingly natural text-to-speech, available in Adobe Captivate.
• Remember elearning rule-of-thumb: accessibility compliance adds 30% to dev costs; use Captivate with all accessibility options enabled.
• Research says: Yes, use narration, but make sure that it doesn't read the slides! Distracts.
• Simplify demo recording by doing voice over existing visual or visual with existing voice. Stand and smile, for best results.
• Use variables to swap out generic verbs (select, scroll, move) with device-relevant ones (tap...).
• Use onfocus events to drive dynamic embedded help: onfocus="readxml('objectname')".
• Use 1-per-topic unique elements, such as DITA's short description, as a handy place to source and extract embedded help text.
• Consider putting embedded help strings in minimal XML files, but be sure to convert any HTML tags.
• Look up CanIUse to quickly find out what CSS3 is supported, where.
• Use Dave Gash's webfonts page for samples, links.
• Take the easy path to @font-face when possible by using Google fonts with big families.
• For non-Google web fonts, let FontSquirrel generate the needed CSS3.
• Turn to HTML5rocks for terrific tutorials.
• Follow Don Day's progress with the ExpeDITA Framework, for making DITA web-CMS-friendly.

LavaCon 2011 presentation links

As promised at my LavaCon sessions, here are my presentation materials. Many thanks to Jack Molisani, for having me speak, and to Nicky Bleiel, for presenting with me again!

Here are the extended article versions, in Word format:

1. Download 2011-LavaCon_Developer-Docs_MConnor-Bleiel
2. Download 2011-LavaCon_Left-my-CMS_MConnor

LavaCon 2011: Double Trouble! Adding Developer Docs to Your Deliverables

 

LavaCon 2011: Why I left my CMS! and how I did it

STC program: UX futures = Joy of Use

Last night at the STC Austin program, Dr. John Morkes (of Expero, which hosts Free Usability Advice) argued that the next stage in User Experience would be "Joy of Use", which follows [1] Usefulness and [2] Ease of Use. That is, the emotions experienced by use of software or sites become the powerful differentiator among otherwise comparable offerings. Reminding me of Maslo's hierarchy of needs, Morkes ranked UX needs like this, from "must have" to "nice to have":

useful > easy to use > code quality > trust/security > pretty > stimulating > fun
(Me, I'd tweak it a bit: useful > code quality > trust/security > easy to use > pretty > stimulating > fun)

Research: Studies in psychology, marketing, and education clearly nail the benefits of humor, for improving likeability, social glue, trust, cooperation, sociability, and lowering fear and stress. Adding humor did not cost extra time in the completion of tasks. MRI studies of the effects of humor show that it activates the brain's reward centers, exactly as occurs when we see a pretty face, receive money, or take drugs.

Guidelines: [1] Define fun specifically per your audience, such as Sun developers enjoying reading old predictions about technology ("The PC will never catch on.") or Mini Cooper prospects enjoying extreme customization of their virtual cars. [2] Test, test, test! [3] Most importantly, don't go for fun before the lower UX levels are met, such as the IRS did with its humorous site that still frustrated stressed-out visitors; the IRS had to abandon the entire site design. 

Examples: weber.com/q , The Register, humor in graphic, buttons saying "Shhh... Secret sale!"

What about documentation? All of their work to date has made them conclude that there's not much you can do to remediate deep, heavy, intimidating manuals -- they recommend that all effort be put into embedded help (on-screen assistance of any kind), since users consistently report happiness about not having to use the Help, not having to leave the screen to get unblocked.

SXSWi: Non-profits on the bleeding edge

Anne Gentle and I attended two popular panels devoted to the challenges facing non-profits, and there was urgent talk about how to increase this to a distinct track in future conferences. The attendees seemed evenly split between those working in non-profits and those providing technology and support to those organizations.

The Future of Volunteers: Adapt or Die!

The first panel tackled how non-profits must harness the new social web to attract and maintain volunteers and donors. From accepting inspiring user-generated content to high-tech recruiting technology in the classroom, these non-profits shared how they're adapting to today's volunteers and donors.

1. National Geographic: (http://mywonderfulworld.org/) This venerable organization changed its mission in response to the web. No longer seeing itself as a disseminater of geographical information so much as an advocate and educator (for natural world and cultural preservation), it now seeks to be a platform for the world community to publish, share, and vote on authored content. They run camps to educate youth in the photographic and videographic technologies needed to produce original, publication-worthy work, and they're focusing on supporting public school teachers, whose funding and bandwidth for geography and cultural studies has shrunk. They're joining forces with related organizations, such as the National Park Service, especially as government institutions are more constrained in what they can do per advocacy. They're also engaging the public with scientific initiatives, such as allowing public participation in a genome mapping project, by which people can submit cheek swabs and information to the study and receive back a mapping of their ancestral journey across the globe. Facilitating personal engagement, coupled with the emphasis on authentic storytelling about minority culture experiences, seems to be the thrust of their new focus.

2. March of Dimes: (http://www.everybabyhasastory.org/) Storytelling, here, too, is the breakthrough change. The March of Dimes built a special bus with two filming booths inside, which it sends around the country and parks in family-friendly places to capture stories about difficult pregnancies and infancies; the website captures even more of these stories, and the impact on engagement and involvement in their fundraising events has been tremendous.

3. American Cancer Society: (http://www.sharinghope.tv/) Storytelling by survivors has been just as compelling for the ACS; they have built a new portal for story sharing because of its huge impact on participation. The challenges they listed were mostly on the side of the non-profit: fragmentation in volunteer handling, inability to list all opportunities comprehensively, and the lack of a volunteer strategy on the national level. Much of new media awareness they stumbled into, such as through the wildly successful grassroots “frozen pea” (http://frozenpeafund.com/) phenomenon: http://susanreynolds.blogs.com/boobsonice/ .

Specific advice:

• Go micro: “micro-volunteering”, “micro-donations”: Allow people to make very small commitments of time and money, repeated on a regular basis.

• Analytics: Advised to change approach to web analytics: downplay page views and emphasize the time spent on the pages and the resulting engagement you can document.

• Facebook: Advised to build causes, widgets, badges, applications, and let your base do the rest.

• SecondLife: Advised to do the work on weekends if necessary, until you can show success via metrics and establish the project.

Pimp My Non Profit - Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology

The follow-up panel shared stories of how non-profit groups have had huge impact on- and offline by using the latest web technologies - for pennies on the dollar. Participants:

1. World Learning: (http://worldlearning.org/)

2. Tech Soup: (http://techsoup.org/)

3. Beth's Blog: (http://beth.typepad.com/) - specifically, how she used technology to win Parade Magazine's “America's Giving Challenge”, fundraising for impoverished Cambodian children

4. Schipul: (http://www.schipul.com/)

5. Common Knowledge: (http://www.commonknowledge.org)

Successes and sites:

• http://ilovemountains.org/ : interactive tool to show impact of your own power company on mountain-top removal and take follow-up action

• http://processing.org/: open-source platform to program images, animation, and interactions

• IFAW.org, http://www.animalrescueblog.org/ : user-uploaded content; advocacy + donation + community

• Brooklyn Museum: free podcasting of lectures, repurposing of content, FaceBook application to share slideshows of artwork collection

• http://maplight.org/ : rolls up data from multiple other organizations and lets users visually drill down on campaign spending, special interest money, and legislative impact.

• Why student blogs failed at WorldLearning.org: the students didn't know each other before venturing out, they were too busy to blog, and internet connections were often too slow, even in developed areas.

• Networking success 3 R's: Relationship-building + Rewards + Reciprocity

• http://austinprobono.org/ : Helping businesses and organizations hook up

• http://hub.witness.org/ : User-uploaded videos related to human rights crises, organized by region and issue

• Just published: Mobilizing Generation 2.0

SXSWi: Age of Engage, how our websites must change

The Age of Engage: Reinventing Marketing for Today's Connected, Collaborative, and Hyperinteractive Culture, by Denise Shiffman

Marketing is hugely impacted by how the web landscape has changed: the static web has become a real-time, interactive web that's social and user-powered. Marketers must distribute messages but then let go, allowing others to manipulate, add to, and pass them along. To engage, we must fundamentally change our messaging: it's more than merely adding blogs, podcasts, and social networking.  Age of Engage covers both marketing and product planning.

Advice from her presentation:

• Build street credibility at all costs: write whitepapers and e-books that have very useful content, and make them free and easy to download, so they can spread virally.

• Create free quizzes and on-line tools to motivate users to find themselves wanting and seek change (yours).

• Create a living datasource, community-built, that will keep them coming back.

• Offer your users a visionary voice; give them genuine peeks into what's coming next.

• Capture hearts with style as well as emotions (think Apple).

• Consider how controversy can generate buzz (http://comcastmustdie.com/).

• Use tools such as http://www.hubspot.com/ to evaluate your site (enter your URL as well as a competitor's, to grade your site).

• Viral spread seems to work best for content that is very new, very funny, or very relevant.

SXSWi: Facebook's technology future

Sarah Lacy interviewed Facebook’s young founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the keynote on Sunday. Started as a college networking tool, the site (valued at $15 billion!) is now used by over 60 million users of all ages, with over 50% using the site every day. With the new Facebook Platform, the site is transforming into a new entity, one in which third-party developers will create a torrent of applications and utilities to serve their own communities and advance their own agendas (such as the Brooklyn Museum's app that lets patrons showcase its art collection on their pages). Facebook's goal is to support super-efficient communication and connection, with semi-public/semi-private information that members post in trust; key in the strategy churn now is how best to monetize it, particularly when their 3-year contract with Microsoft expires.

Zuckerberg admitted that having a single threshold for spam-flagging apps actually worsens the overall experience of “spamminess”, as everyone races to the limit allowed. The critical challenge for the Facebook Platform is how to balance the competing needs for easiness, safety, and personal information control. Numerous complaints came from the floor about the current inadequacies of searching, tagging, and information shielding.

My sense of the Facebook discussion is that the platform – rather than driving the users – is barely keeping up with the demands being put upon it. Users know only too well what shortcuts they want in personal networking, based on years of making do with disconnected software and datasources, of keeping their networks up to date with their photos, news, and information. Now that the tools are matured sufficiently to make virtual networking possible, the pent-up demand of the extroverted majority is driving change to a blur. If not Facebook, it will be something like it, I'm convinced. Pandora's box is opened.

New LinkedIn profile URL

I'm afraid the old URL I posted won't work now that this new one is in force.

Resume

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Mary Connor's Profile

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