Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Information design for product usability by French artist Jacques Carelman

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Traditional approaches to technical writing. XXXXXXX

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Goal: “document the software” You try to write everything about the software Advantage: Information users need or expect is available Disadvantage: Retrieving and understanding the info will be hard Product-centered approach

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Goal: “write well” You focus on: rhetoric, style, grammar, spelling, punctuation, typography word-processing, copy-editing, printing, binding Advantage: The manual is strong in these areas Disadvantage: Does not ensure better user experience with s/w Writer-centered approach

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Goal: “develop usable manuals” You treat information as a separate, independent entity Advantage: Each info element is “usable” Disadvantage: Inconsistent/uncooperative with each other and with user interface Document-centered approach

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab What is product usability. ?

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Software quality factors CAPABILITY RELIABILITY USABILITY PERFORMANCE SUPPORTABILITY

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Usability is... Concern in the design of any product used by humans Critical concern for software Ignored by most Indian software companies Ease Speed Pleasant- ness

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Bottom-line Users are: Less productive Commit more errors Overall dissatisfied with software Overall quality of software is MEDIOCRE Business benefits are missed by user organization Business benefits are missed by YOUR organization What happens when usability is ignored?

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Architecture Dialog design Screen content & organization Screen visual design Things that impact usability Labels Messages Online documentation Printed documentation } Information is a software usability determinant

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab WHICH APPROACH HELPS? If information is a product usability determinant,...

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab

Your approach should be: USER-centered Your goal should be: Design information elements to improve s/w usability So...

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab User-Centered Information Design (UCID) Integrated approach to designing ALL information elements Such that each element contributes to product’s ease-of-use

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab UCID: key concept 1 SOFTWARE USABILITY IS ALWAYS THE GOAL Primary purpose of information: Improve software usability Your ultimate goal for every info element: Improve software usability

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab UCID: key concept 2 TECH WRITERS DESIGN all THE INFO COMPOS Traditionally, only online doc and printed doc Now, labels and messages too Required skill set is largely the same So, UCID extends tech writer’s ROLE

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab UCID: key concept 3 INTEGRATION IS MANDATORY Traditionally, each info compo is developed... By a different group At a different time Problems: Inconsistent info Missing info Useless info Repetition

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab UCID: key concept 3 Continued... INTEGRATION IS MANDATORY Integration packs into each info element just the info users would need/expect from that element So that all elements contribute to improved software usability

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab UCID success story Cognizant Usability Lab

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab UCID at Cognizant Technology Solutions Cognizant Usability Lab Usability engineering is integrated into software process Dedicated resources UCID is happening here Info design is integrated into the usability process Dedicated resources Works well for the benefit of users, organization, tech writers

Pradeep Henry: Cognizant Usability Lab Thank you. Change your GOAL, Extend your ROLE Pradeep Henry corp.com