Minimalism in technical documentation states that we should only deliver info that the user needs. But how can we know what each individual user already knows (and does not need)? The answer is: we cannot. And this is why we should use progressive disclosure techniques to optimize the help we offer to our customers, so that each individual customer can decide for himself whether more info is needed or not, and on which aspects more info is needed. There is one important catch: Implementing progressive disclosure can be a lot of work and be too costly to do. The solution to this budgetary problem is to use a well-defined structure in your content (preferably DITA) and an XSLT that automatically adds the required hooks and handles (triggers and targets) to make progressive disclosure work.

1. maximising the effect of
progressive disclosure
Jang F.M. Graat
!1

2. who is talking ?
• Jang F.M. Graat
• 25+ years in Tech Comm
• FM, RH, oXygen
• DITA, XSLT, JS, CSS
• Minimalist
• Psychology, Philosophy
• Dutch world citizen
!2

3. minimalism
basic principles
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4. reading is never the goal
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5. action-oriented
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6. give the users only the
information they need
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7. support error recovery
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8. the problem
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what do the users already know ?

9. various user levels
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10. which personas ?
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11. education, experience, ...
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12. only the user knows
what s/he doesn't know
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13. progressive disclosure
putting the users in control
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14. users know when to
ask for more info
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15. interactive media
allow triggers and targets
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16. problem: changing context
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17. wild goose chase
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18. option: disclosable content
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19. progressive disclosure
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20. UA meets UX meets UG
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GUI and UA design go hand in hand

21. Wikipedia:
!
"Progressive disclosure is an
interaction design technique often
used in human computer interaction
to help maintain the focus of a user's
attention by reducing clutter,
confusion, and cognitive workload.
This improves usability by
presenting only the minimum data
required for the task at hand."
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22. basic techniques
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using web technology

23. tooltips
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24. expanding text
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25. drop-down content
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26. layered content
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27. embedded videos
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28. staged information
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29. guided tours
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30. some guidelines
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31. styling and wording
create expectations
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for more information click here.
!
more information
!
more information:
+ security settings
+ firewall options
+ privacy protection
!
import/export options

32. focus of user's attention
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33. consistency in styling
and location of elements
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34. always supply a way back
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35. things to avoid
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36. stating the obvious
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37. too many options
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38. unhelpful advice
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39. expanding menus
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40. dynamic menus
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41. what makes it work ?
some good and bad examples
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42. getting started
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43. !43

44. !44

45. !45

46. !46

47. !47

48. !48

49. !49

50. !50

51. embedded user assistance
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52. !52

53. !53

54. !54

55. !55

56. !56

57. !57

58. !58

59. !59

60. progressive disclosure
how to implement it (manually)
!60

61. !61
minimal information
that is always shown

62. !62
RoboHelp allows
drop-down text

63. !63
inserting and editing
hidden information

64. !64
text is marked as hotspot

65. !65
the same process
can be nested

66. !66
drop-down content
may include images

67. !67
the end result in a browser:
only minimal info is visible

68. !68
the user can click on triggers
to reveal drop-down content

69. !69
progressive disclosure

70. !70
this method takes time

71. progressive disclosure
let's automate the process
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* the described automation
will be available as a plug-in
for the DITA Open Toolkit

72. structure + XSLT = magic
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73. XPath : semantic search
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74. XSLT : makeover
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75. !75
task
title
shortdesc
prolog
taskbody
context
steps
step
cmd
info
substeps
stepresult
step
cmd
substeps
step
cmd
info
substeps
a DITA task
red: mandatory
green: optional

76. !76
DITA task in the editor

77. !77
standard HTML output

78. !78
XSL allows
automatic
transformation

79. !79
<shortdesc> is
changed into
a tooltip

80. !80
CSS makes
specified elements
initially hidden

81. !81
JavaScript links triggers
to their target content

82. !82
result of the XSLT

83. !83
output in a browser

84. !84
clicking a + symbols
opens the <substeps>

85. !85
other symbols open
<info> and <result>

86. !86
moving mouse over title
reveals <shortdesc>

87. !87
+ symbol top right
opens <context>

88. !88
further learning

89. Nielsen Norman group
!89
www.nngroup.com

90. questions ?
www.jang.nl
jang@jang.nl
4everJang
blogs.jang.nl
!90