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Optimizing the User Experience Through Integrated Information Design Sowmini Sampath and Richard Ellis

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What We’ll Be Talking About <ul><li>In this talk, we’ll describe our approach to developing help solutions that: </li></ul><ul><li>Integrate context sensitive help (CSH) into product user interfaces </li></ul><ul><li>Integrate CSH with our existing knowledge base </li></ul><ul><li>Derive content from interaction analysis </li></ul>

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The MathWorks Products <ul><li>The MathWorks produces software for engineers and researchers in a variety of industries: </li></ul><ul><li>Automotive </li></ul><ul><li>Electronics </li></ul><ul><li>Industrial equipment </li></ul><ul><li>Telecommunications </li></ul>

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How People Use Our Products? <ul><li>Users create computer models </li></ul><ul><li>Run simulations </li></ul><ul><li>Perform data analysis and visualization </li></ul><ul><li>Create new tools and applications using our software. </li></ul>

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Task Complexity <ul><li>User tasks often require configuring a number of complex dialogs. </li></ul><ul><li>Each element represents a decision that the user must make. </li></ul>

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Designing Help for Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) <ul><li>Increasing use of GUIs by products required better help design </li></ul><ul><li>Design goals: </li></ul><ul><li>Integrate user assistance into product interfaces. </li></ul><ul><li>Provide targeted information for each decision </li></ul><ul><li>Make CSH an entry point into the existing user documentation. </li></ul>

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Initial Investigations <ul><li>Needed to partner with engineers to integrate the help into the interface. </li></ul><ul><li>Many people thought context sensitive help was of little value. </li></ul><ul><li>Why had people rarely found it useful? </li></ul>

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What Was Not Working <ul><li>Tooltips were often used to provide scant information </li></ul><ul><li>Help button dove into usage topics and often required you to wade through a pool information to find the answer. </li></ul>

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Why it Was Not Working <ul><li>Tooltips lack: </li></ul><ul><li>Enough information </li></ul><ul><li>Linking </li></ul><ul><li>Formatting </li></ul><ul><li>Not persistent </li></ul><ul><li>Help browser: </li></ul><ul><li>Overwhelming amount of information </li></ul><ul><li>Deep hierarchy of information </li></ul><ul><li>Is cumbersome – starting another application </li></ul><ul><li>Need to provide the right amount and type of information. </li></ul>

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Analysis of User Help Requirements <ul><li>We developed use cases, observed usability test, and brainstormed to develop a model of user information needs. </li></ul><ul><li>A “critical mass” of information necessary. </li></ul><ul><li>A progression from specific details to general concepts – information escalation. </li></ul><ul><li>Avoid quantum leaps in your information escalation path. </li></ul>

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User Interactions We Support with Help <ul><li>New users tend to explore before doing actual work. </li></ul><ul><li>Users need to map their task onto the products features </li></ul><ul><li>Experienced users often wanted to be reminded of details. </li></ul><ul><li>All users wanted unobtrusive, on-demand information. </li></ul>

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The On Ramp – Provided by Help Button Purpose High-level workflow Information gateway

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Field-Level Help <ul><li>Right-click context menu displays a popup window with help on individual item. </li></ul>Purpose Relevant details Link to related information

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Embedding Help in the User Interface <ul><li>Application starts with instructions displayed </li></ul>Start by doing this Built in on ramp

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Procedures Update as Work Progresses <ul><li>The help always matches the tool’s current state. </li></ul>Close help pane GUI has reconfigured Help automatically updates

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Tying It All Together <ul><li>A well planned information escalation path – information must stay in context. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>We know what users are doing because they have requested help from a particular location in a GUI. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Through task analysis the writer has determined what supporting information needs to be in the user’s manual. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Our metaphor – the link opens the user’s manual at just the right page. </li></ul></ul>

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The CSH model integrates all help CSH becomes an entry point into our knowledge base User tasks Product workflow

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Introduction <ul><li>Brief description of the SimBiology® application </li></ul><ul><li>Challenges posed to the writing team by the software </li></ul><ul><li>Implementation of the solution </li></ul><ul><li>Summary </li></ul>

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SimBiology® <ul><li>SimBiology is a product from the MathWorks that lets biologists visualize and analyze biochemical reactions. </li></ul><ul><li>The SimBiology application extends MATLAB® for use by scientists in academia, and in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. </li></ul>

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Interface Description

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How to Begin? <ul><li>We started by analyzing the user’s workflow: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Took a user’s task and mapped it out in the SimBiology GUI </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Created task scenarios and did usability testing </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Noted user interactions with the GUI to help drive the design process </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Observed that there were many sub tasks within the overall workflow </li></ul></ul>

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Selecting a Solution <ul><li>Selected embedded procedures as the solution to documenting subtasks </li></ul>

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Observation <ul><li>Novice user asks “Where do I begin? </li></ul><ul><li>Having these multiple tasks confront the user posed a different challenge: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Users may not know what they need before and what they must do after in the overall workflow. </li></ul></ul>

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Solution <ul><li>Provide an on-ramp to the GUI </li></ul><ul><li>Provide an overall view of the general workflow, and show how to map tasks to product features </li></ul>

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Research Workflow

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SimBiology User Workflow

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Process of Creating the Diagram <ul><li>Helped us conceptualize the workflow </li></ul><ul><li>Learned about user task scenarios </li></ul><ul><li>Help us understand what information the target audience needs </li></ul>

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Observation <ul><li>Experienced users require more in-depth information but want this in the context of their task. </li></ul>

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Solution <ul><li>A path to more in depth information that is closely related to users’ tasks – information must stay in context or users do not read it. </li></ul>

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Summary of SimBiology Help <ul><li>SimBiology documentation includes: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Embedded-help pane </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Procedures to accomplish typical tasks in the GUI </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Cross-references to supporting information </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Usage Topics </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>An overall view of the general workflow, and how to map tasks to product features </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>In-depth information – conceptual topics, tutorials, reference materials with lots of examples </li></ul></ul></ul>

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CSH becomes an entry point into our information system <ul><li>Conceptual topics </li></ul><ul><li>Tutorials </li></ul><ul><li>Reference </li></ul>