stc mobile device content consideration

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.

Resizing Content for the Small Screen: Considerations for Single-Source Authoring for Tablet and Mobile DeliveryMaxwell Hoffmann | Product Evangelist | [email protected] | @maxwellhoffmann

mailto:[email protected]

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

About Adobe

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74 Offices in 43 Countries

Corporate Headquarters inSan Jose, California

Founded in December 1982

$4.2 billion in revenue in FY2011

More than 10,000 employees

Adobe donates a minimum of 1%of net income to philanthropy

We simplify complicated, inefficient and expensive workflowsWe enable more engaging, compelling contentWe drive greater return from digital media and marketing investments


About Maxwell Hoffmann

Maxwell Hoffmann

Product Evangelist, Tech Comm Suite

Started with early forms of proprietary single-source publishing, grew with the industry

Product Manager for Frame Technology

15 years in translation industry, working on “whatever documents come through the door”

Extensive sales and customer training experience

Trained over 1,200 people in hands-on, scalable publishing solutions

Over a dozen years in the Field doing consulting & production

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Presentation in a nut shell

Concepts, not specifics, not a SW demo

Observations about several trends that need to die

Why we do things the way we do

Guidelines for content that fits a screen you can hold in your hand

Some exercises we can use to “break” the habit of bloated content creation

Modified expectations about single-source publishing

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(sigh) -- The inevitable history/timeline slide ….

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Writer have wanted their “finger prints” in content for a long time

Human hand prints from Spanish cave recently tested to be over 40,000 years old

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How do we get from “there” to “here”?

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What I Learned from over 25 years in publishing and training

Publishers (me too) are often hypnotized by new technologies or new delivery platforms

Excessive focus on tools and trends sometimes makes us forget “should this legacy data be republished?”

Legacy files are rarely “cleansed/optimized” before conversion to new delivery

Some writers still want their fingerprints on their chaptersWant to “enrich” content with their personality(“unpublished” novelist syndrome)

“Less is More” has yet to catch on with content

Many gifted writers have instinctive resistance to “guided” content creation (e.g. structured authoring, topic-based authoring or simplified English)

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How the landscape has changed for Content Creators

Readers:

have less time and shorter attention spans

expect the latest, up-to-date version of any content ASAP

Writers/Artists:

Fewer of us (smaller work groups)

Less times, shorter delivery schedules(magnified by target languages with localization/translation)

Workload (amount of data) often 2-3x that of 10 years ago

Increased pressure to serve Global Audience

Graphic Artist used to be a fulltime, corporate position; in some locales those skills have withered

21st Century “tech writers” struggling to gain status, recognition and influence over budget

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Many of us have “fat” legacy content and less space for it

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In technical content, we still write more than people can read

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Customers have less time to consume data

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How did we a “page-based” lens for content?

Page size or laptop/computer screen has usually been the “lens” through which we visualize delivered content

Most of us write enough words to fill up the space we are working in (e.g. “write to the bottom of the page”)

Technical content: many of us are still prone to unnecessarily bracket “critical info” in nested lists or tables

Many of us fall into “arms-length” syndrome:content looks good on computer screen

Try to read Sponsor/Logo on lamp-post banners

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Why do we write more content than people can read?

We’re subject matter experts; we know a lot, we have a lot to say

Most of us are used to describing steps rather than dynamic, visual presentation

Sometimes we are revising earlier versions of “documentation” with content that is 5 – 15 years old

We have few examples or models to work from for “reduced” content versions

Human Nature: some of us just don’t embrace change

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CHALLENGE: repackaging message/content in smaller containers

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Historic precedents: old content on new platforms

Early television content turned to the past: Vaudeville and Radio Shows

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… it worked for 3 to 5 years



Theatrical films on TV: the world before letter box

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“fat” content on a “skinny” screen



Newspapers and websites: it took them over 10 years to “get it” …

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1996 LA Times

2012 LA Times on web


The LA Times “got it” … multiple platform delivery

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What are our biggest challenges for the “new” small screen?

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Tech Doc thrives on indents, lists, tables, boxed cautions for emphasis

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This aspect ration presents challenges for technical material

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Traditional, “fat” bullet or numbered lists are a problem

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1. You have 8 to 20 screens

2. Thumbs will wear out navigating through this many points

3. Reader retention is diminished

4. Follow some guidelines from PowerPoint regarding max number of points and reader retention


From “Death by PowerPoint”

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From “Death by PowerPoint”

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Some options to consider

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1. Use conditional text or filter by attributes (DITA) to reduce content if single-sourcing

2. In some cases, alternative sections for an executive summary

3. Does this lengthy tech doc manual really need to go to mobile devices?


EXERCISES to get a new mind-set

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HOW can you write content short enough for small screen?

Use WYSIWYG editing display to see how much content you have for iPhone screen as you write it User alternate CSS style

sheets with XML or XHTML content

Use alternate templates that simulate screen and font/point size ratio with unstructured content

Actually author in this mode; don’t preview

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HOW can you retune your authoring skills for a small screen?

DISCLAIMER: this slide assumes that you are creating “typical” tech doc (e.g. medical devices, complex manuals)

A practice exercise: use “mailing labels” template in Word, or make “tiny page” template in FrameMaker. Do your normal writing style and see how many “screens” you fill

Scotch tape 3x5 cards to sheet of paper; fill them in on a typewriter (yes, a typewriter) … this is an exercise, you’re only going to do this once Don’t worry about typos

This makes you physically aware of approximate words or characters per screen

Working with physical media (construction paper and scissors) permanently plants a “gauge” of content in your mind

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HOW can you write shorter sentences for a small screen?

Changing writing style to shorter word count: (No, I’m not kidding) – use dictation; record your text

with digital recorder or Siri (even cassette tapes)

Don’t worry about quality; you can edit later

Whatever you can say w/o taking a breath is a good gauge for memory retention on small screen

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HOW else can retrain your mind to compose shorter sentences?

Read Dorothy Parker short stories

Although Parker wrote fiction, she was a master atusing minimum number of words to convey profound thoughts and emotions

Find podcasts of Martha Stewart’s 90 seconds of “what you need to know”

Stewart (or her writers) was a genius at capturing all essential ingredients for a messagein a radio or podcast about the length of an “elevator pitch”

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… and if you really want to go retro …


Find some Reader’s Digest Reference books from ‘60s and ‘70s

Disclaimer: author not a fan of R.D.’s politics

The content of one of these books doesn’t matter

Just read part of it for the sense of sentence length, and “getting to the point” in topic sentence

Clever use of “key” graphics made good visual references

You’re not going to copy anything that you see (style, layout, etc.) … but the staff at R.D. were highly gifted at digesting critical information down to its essentials

Note: content went downhill about 12-15 years ago (IMHO) 32


512 Common Nouns

218 Verbs

36 Adjectives

20 Adverbs

18 Preps. and Conj.

Total 985 Words

171 Technical Nouns

ASD-STE100

Developed in 1988 by Fokker Aircraft.

The “core”

Simplified Technical English (STE) – an example

(www.smartny.com)


Controlled English - Instrumentation

Quaternary PumpWhen turned on, the quaternary pump runs through the initialization procedure to determine the upper dead center of the first plunger. The first plunger moves slowly upwards into the mechanical stop of chamber and from there it moves back a predetermined path length. (44 words)

Controlled English reduces text size by 30%

Quaternary Pump

When the Quaternary Pump starts operation, the plunger moves inside the chamber. This movement lets the computer calculate and store a position called “Top Dead Center” (TDC).

(27 words)

Simplified

(www.smartny.com)


Some software tools to reduce vocabulary and sentence length

English language has >900K potential words

Simplified English (or STE, CE) uses from 1,000 to 2,400

There are may companion products to FrameMaker and Word that can “guide” word choice Example: Maxit Checker by

Smart Software(www.smartny.com)

AuthorAssist by SDL.com

Tools by Acrolynx.com

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(graphic = www.smartny.com)

http://www.smartny.com/


One movie is worth a thousand screen shots

DISCLAIMER: this slide, again, assumes that you are creating typical, lengthy tech doc with lots of screen captures (e.g. software manuals)

Make discreet use of rich media; 3D graphics, video clips or dynamic screen captures (sized for small screen)

This allows the reader to pause on one screen (or PDF page) and “get it”

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HOW can you think in “chunks” for the small screen?

Work with a physical story board (try this with physical media first)

Make a storyboard on manila file folder with post-it stickers

Put topics or concepts on post-it stickers

Forces your mind to think in pictures; this translates better to shorter content

This is an exercise, not a way of life … don’t freak out. I tried it and this works

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HOW can you think in “visual units” appropriate for the small screen

Turn to Graphic Novels for inspiration

Good comic books or graphic novels make good use of “close up” and long shots

Wordless images are used for emphasis

Graphic novel illustration panels are similar to the real estate of small hand-held devices.

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http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/canadian-lit-prize-snubs-graphic-novels-graphic-artist_b8096


One more way you can hone your visual communication skills

Watch and analyze a “good” silent movie

The Artist

The Big Parade (1925)

The Last Laugh (no title cards)

Wings (1928)

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Lessons from the translation industry

In some cases, “copy writing” (or rewrite for summary/mobile version) may be appropriate

Not all technical content will be suited for 100% single source publishing to full “page” output and vastly reduced “hand held” screen output

Think of portable devices as a “locale”:

You have an exotic population that has less time to absorb a message

Your target “locale” has a shorter attention span; important points must come first

Your target “locale” only has a thumb to navigate …. Content must appear in visual ‘chunks’

In many cases, the reader is “standing in line” … physical comfort as well as findability are major issues

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My product “wish list” …

We need an authoring solution that shows how much text you have created in different screen sizes while you are writing

Complete separation for format from content may not always work for this scenario

DITA modules can be ideal, but visual feedback on “frame fill” is needed

Authoring solution needs to be accessible to mere mortals. Not all SMEs are going to be experts at document structure or working in a “tagged” view

Author plug-ins that not only “guide” simplified English but set off a “buzzer” when you’ve hit 1.5 screens with one paragraphs

An ability to pre-visualize final output to ePubs and mobile devices before you’ve completed mountains of text

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One solution: Adobe Technical Communication Suite 3.5

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Brief DEMO of various single-source output options with Tech Comm Suite

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Question And Answer Time

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Contact Information

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Information

Maxwell HoffmannAdobe Systems, Inc.Product Evangelist

Twitter twitter.com/maxwellhoffmannEmail [email protected] Web www.adobe.comLinkedInwww.linkedin.com/in/maxwellhoffmannBlog blogs.adobe.com/mbhoffmannBlog blogs.adobe.com/techcommFacebook facebook.com/adobe.tcs

Slides available upon request

http://www.adobe.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellhoffmann

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