(Join me on Thursday, July 12, 2012, 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time at the STC live webinar for this presentation!) You know that there is more to technical communication than developing traditional deliverables, that the experience need not be discontinuous or redundant, and that you can positively impact product experiences through content. How? Through progressive information disclosure. Learn how to improve users’ experiences using this information architecture and design technique. For related proceedings paper, see pg 177 of the PDF (http://tinyurl.com/crdwwld), or the mobile version (http://bit.ly/MhO97q).

1. Improving the User Experience
by Applying Progressive
Information Disclosure
Presented by
Andrea L. Ames
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member / Information Experience Strategist & Architect
UC Extension in Silicon Valley Certificate Coordinator & Instructor
STC Fellow & Past President (2004-05)
ACM Distinguished Engineer

2. Tweeting?
@aames

3. About Andrea
 Technical communicator since 1983
 Areas of expertise
 Information architecture and design and interaction design for products
and interactive information
 Information and product usability—from analysis through validation
 User-centered design and development process
 IBM Senior Technical Staff Member
 University of CA Extension certificate coordinator
and instructor
 STC Fellow, past president (2004-05), and past member of
Board of Directors (1998-2006)
 ACM Distinguished Engineer
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4. Agenda
 Progressive disclosure (PD)
 Traditional information PD
 The new twist – applying it to the information
experience, in particular the UI
 But first, we have to think more
and write less
 Quick steps to PD
 Resources
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5. According to Wikipedia…
progressive disclosure (PD):
 “To move complex and less frequently used options out of the main
user interface and into secondary screens“
 An interaction design technique
 Often used in human computer interaction
 Helps maintain the focus of a user's attention by reducing clutter,
confusion, and cognitive workload
 Improves usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the
task at hand
 Sequences actions across several screens
 Reduces feelings of overwhelm for the user
 Reveals only the essentials and helps the user manage the complexity
of feature-rich sites or applications
 Moves from "abstract to specific" via “ramping up” the user from simple
to more complex actions

6. PD for interaction isn’t new
 Around since at least the early 1980s (Jack Carroll, IBM)
 Jakob Nielsen has been discussing it for ages
"Progressive disclosure is the best tool so far: show people the
basics first, and once they understand that, allow them to get to
the expert features. But don't show everything all at once or you
will only confuse people and they will waste endless time
messing with features that they don't need yet".
 In information development, PD can be applied to content, as
well

7. What is progressive
information disclosure?
 In an information experience, enables you (the author) to provide
the right information in the right place at the right time
 Assumes “competent performer” to “proficient performer” is stage
of use (backup) in which users will spend most of their time when
using the product
 Defer display of novice information, background, concepts,
extended reference material, etc., until the user needs and
requests it
 Reduces complexity by revealing only the essentials for a current
task and then reveals more as users advance through tasks

8. What is progressive
information disclosure? (cont.)
 Reveals information in an ordered manner
 Each layer builds on the previous one in a flow that provides
progressively more information
 Provides only the details that are necessary at a given time, in a
specific context
 Provides assistance when necessary--not information created
just to cover an empty widget
 Do not repeat information; for example, do not repeat field labels
in hover text.
 “A guided journey, not a scavenger hunt"
 Designed around the ideal information experience–with no
resource or time constraints
 Implemented realistically with necessary constraints

9. A rose by any other name…
 Technical communicators have been “doing”
PD for a long time
 We might not call it PD
 The best example of traditional PD:
Well-architected traditional online help
 Primary “layer”: Contextual and task topics
 Secondary “layers”: prereqs, background, related
concepts and reference, etc.

10. Traditional, contextual help

11. The problem with traditional assistance and
traditional information development methods
 Typical UI-text development process:
 Written by developers of the UI
 Edited by tech pubs (best case; often copy edit capturing only capitalization and punctuation issues
and typos)
 Typical help development process:
 Writers attend (some) design meetings, keeping track of the number of UI panels in the product,
which typically include one help button per panel
 Writers develop one help topic for each UI panel in the product
 Pop-up help/hover help provided for all, or no, controls
 Task help describes how to complete the fields in the UI panel:
 Pop-up help content repeated in task help
 Writers cut and paste from specs
 Typical library design and development process:
 Deliverables developed based on development expectations and history vs. user needs
 Other (non-help) deliverable content identified without regard for task help also being created
 Extensive redundancy across UI text, help, and other deliverables (like books)
 Design process completed within resource and time constraints, not according
to ideal or customer needs

12. The next PD
evolution/revolution
 The UI
 Get even closer to the task than the help
 Influence the design of the task and task
ecosystem
 Drive reductions in words
 Prioritize resources around client value

13. PD revolution prereq:
Think More, Write Less
“Think more” means… “Write less” means…
 Owning and being responsible for  Ensuring that the UI is as easy to
the information experience explain as possible by contributing
 Not making our users think about to designing interaction the right way
how to use the product the first time
 Not falling back on old paradigms:  Starting from the user’s immediate
 One help topic per UI screen task context and working your way
 How many books are we going to out to more general information—
write? make “looking for” the answer a last
 Not letting the developers think for resort (because it is)
you  Not forcing users to read more than
 Being assertive – making sure they have to
you’re involved throughout the  Prioritizing what you cover and
design process where—for example, using
scenarios
 Not just “papering the product” with
traditional documentation

14. Why do we need to change?
 Traditional deliverables, developed by traditional methods, are not working:
 Reference that “papers the product”
 Generalized user-guide info
 “Type your name in the Name field” help
 Most documentation focuses on functional information, not domain information, or the mapping from
domain to product function—written from the inside out
 Much of that information covers the large number of tasks users need to do – such as installing,
migrating, etc. – that are not business goals
 Online libraries stuffed with everything we produce
 Documentation is often compensation for unusable products—a finger in an
eroding dam of bad product design
 Customers and users don’t read documentation—reading documentation is
never a business goal 
 Information is difficult to find and often does not address the user’s issue
 Customers do not perceive information as separate from product
 Customers look more and more to forums, knowledge bases, and other social
sources of info vs. product doc
 Can you afford not to change—do you have the resource to continue building
and maintaining content that customers don’t need or use?

15. How can we think more
and write less?
 Prioritize using deep understanding of users (scenarios, use cases, etc.)
 Sometimes this means not writing something
 Most often, it means covering it in an unfamiliar way (to the team,
customers, and even you)
 Design deliverables to support users’ efficient and effective
use of information in the context of their tasks
(embedded assistance, contextual information,
examples, samples, concrete information, take cues
from community-written info)
 Own your portion of the responsibility for the usability
of the product—the information experience begins in
the product

16. How can we think more and
write less? (cont.)
 If the design discussion around an aspect of the product seems
complicated or difficult to you, it probably is—this is where your
customers most need you!
 In the design discussion, raise the issue with the dev team, contribute ideas for
improving the design.
 Look for gaps in user-goal and user-task flows: between UI panels, between tasks,
between different UIs (admin versus end user client, e.g.), between products.
 Ask questions about what you don’t know (they are probably the same as user’s
questions).
 If you can’t get product changes, or get them right away, find ways to improve the user
experience without adding topics… embedded information, “show me” demo, or
tutorial.
 Start with the user and provide the right information within the UI’s task
flow (embedded assistance).
 Determine what’s highest-value for your users—examples, samples,
tasks, tutorials—and focus on those; don’t try to cover every part of the
product with every kind of info and deliverable.

17. How can we think more and
write less? (cont.)
 Document the UI in the UI
 Don’t rewrite what’s in the UI in hover help and help pane
 Don’t include unnecessary hover help and help-pane content
 When considering additional documentation
 Focus on user tasks—not UI tasks—and then on supporting reference and conceptual
information
 Focus concepts on the user’s task domain, not the tool
 Don’t duplicate UI help and hover-help content in other deliverables
 When testing information, take user input into consideration, but don’t just do
whatever they say
 Understand the root causes of their concerns
 Design the right solution for the issue at hand and validate it
 Typically, users don’t know what the root cause is; they only know how to articulate what
they like and don’t like; base design decisions on observable performance, if possible
 What we do requires thinking! There is no cookbook or recipe for implementing
it!

18. Now what?
1. Start with the product: is it as obvious and self-evident as
possible
2. Consider your users’ stages of use (backup)
3. Consider the types of content you need to provide
 Control assistance
 Panel assistance
 Domain assistance
4. And the types of mechanisms available
 Persistent UI text that doesn’t require
a user gesture
 Simple UI gestures your users will tolerate
5. Can you improve “help?”
6. How are you supporting use of the
product with non-UI, task-oriented deliverables?

19. Resources
Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox
Demystifying Usability blog
Time-Tripper UI patterns
InteractionDesign.org
2012 STC Summit Proceedings paper:
 PDF (pg 177): http://tinyurl.com/crdwwld
 Mobile: http://bit.ly/MhO97q
This presentation on slideshare: http://slidesha.re/JlUaNT
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20. Questions?
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21. Contacting/following Andrea
E-mail: aames@pobox.com
Twitter: @aames
Facebook: www.facebook.com/alames
Blog: http://thinkmorewriteless.wordpress.com/
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22. Backup
Stages of Use Model:
A tool for applying PD
2012 STC Summit Proceedings paper:
PDF (pg 177): http://tinyurl.com/crdwwld
Mobile: http://bit.ly/MhO97q

23. “Stages of use” in designing and writing
embedded assistance layers of PD
Information Level
0 25 50 75 100
Competent Proficient
Novice Advanced Beginner Expert
Performer Performer
15-25% 60-75% 1-5%
10-15% 5-10%
Information
Level
60

24. “Stages of use” in designing and writing
embedded assistance layers of PD, cont.
Information Level
0 25 50 75 100
Competent Proficient
Novice Advanced Beginner Expert
Performer Performer
15-25% 60-75% 1-5%
10-15% 5-10%
Information
Level
60

25. Cautionary note about stages of use in
EA design
 Stages of use apply to multiple user dimensions; for example:
 Domain knowledge
 Computer use
 Your tool
 Tools like your tool
 A user who is a novice in your tool and tools like your tool might be an expert in
the domain and the use of computers in general.
 The same user might be an expert with most parts of your UI and a novice in
some, or might be an expert in some parts of a task flow and a novice in others.
 You must consider the many dimensions of your users before arbitrarily applying
a single “stage of use” label to them
 Consider the appropriate information for the point in time for which you are
designing: does the user need tool information, domain information, or both?
 Thankfully, progressive disclosure enables you to support multiple levels of
users throughout their use of the various parts of the product and through their
growth in domain and tool knowledge and experience