User Assistance: Cognitive Architecture

RAY
GALLON
C U L T U R E C O M
Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
User Assistance:
Cognitive Architecture
The
Transformation
Society
Saturday, 28 September 2013

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Who IsThis Guy?
Ray Gallon -The Humanist Nerd
Research
collaborator
and
principal,
The
Transformation
Society,

a
new
research
and
training
institute
in
Barcelona,
Spain
■ 20
years
in
technical
communication
with
major
companies
such
as
G.E.

Healthcare,
Alcatel,
IBM,
etc.
■ Member,
board
of
directors,
Society
for
Technical
Communication
(STC)
■ Past
president,
STC
France
■ Award-‐winning
radio
producer
and
journalist
–
CBC,
NPR,
France
Culture,

etc.
and
former
programme
manager,
WNYC-‐FM,
New
York
Public
Radio
Owner/Consultant,
Culturecom
–
specialist
in

usability,
content

strategy,
and
user
assistance
for
software

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Who IsThis Guy?
Ray Gallon -The Humanist Nerd
NOT
AN
INFORMATION
ARCHITECT!
■ What
makes
you
think
you
can
speak
to
this
crowd?
■The
Hairball
of
Content!
■We’re
All
Just
Content
Workers!

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
When User Assistance was
“Documentation”
Technical
writers
were
at
the
end
of
the
food
chain:
Following
engineers
around
Writing
what
they
said
they
did
https://computing.seas.harvard.edu/download/attachments/51708221/documents.jpg?
http://www.ebsqart.com/Art/FISH/Mixed/732427/650/650/BIG-‐FISH-‐LITTLE-‐FISH-‐Food-‐Chain.jpg
User
Assistance
was
an
Add-‐on
Today,
UA
must
be
a
designed
subsystem

integrated
into
the
product

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Provide Decision Support
Modern
software’s
complexity,
features,
&
power

can
leave
users
perplexed
–
often
just
when
they

have
some
immediate,
contingent
need:

“I
need
to
get
this
done,
and
NOW!.”
User
assistance
that
is
limited
to

procedures
cannot
help
people

with
contingent
needs.
People
with
contingent
needs
are

not
going
to
wade
through
long

conceptual
texts.


Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Experience is More Important thanTaxonomy
In
traditional
“static” documentation,
the
product
gives
meaning
to
the

docs.
Users’ experience
with
the
product
takes
them
from
the
abstract
realm
of

reading
about
the
product...


Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Experience is More Important thanTaxonomy
In
traditional
“static” documentation,
the
product
gives
meaning
to
the

docs.
Users’ experience
with
the
product
takes
them
from
the
abstract
realm
of

reading
about
the
product...

to
the
reality
of
performance.
For
software,
we
can
go
straight
to
performance-‐based
meaning
if
we

embed
the
user
assistance
in
the
product
itself.


Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
People Learn Best by Doing
People
learn
about
product
use
by

doing
something
and
making

connections
in
the
process.

BUT:
is
memorizing
a
procedure
by

rote
necessary
for
competency?
How
do
I
even
know
if
I

need
to
do
this?

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Performance-Based Meaning?
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 3
DO
THIS
DON’T DO THAT
NOTE:
WARNING!If
concepts
are

important,
and
we

learn
best
by
doing...
...how
do
we
learn

concepts
by
doing?
Put
them
where
they
will
be
useful
and
remembered:

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Double Embeddedness
Embed
procedural
UA
directly
into
the
Interface Embed simpleconcepts directly
into the UA
Cognitive Sciencebacks this up

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Cognitive Bases: Gestalt Psychology
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology
Tries
to
understand
how
we
acquire

and
maintain
stable
percepts
in
a
noisy

world.

The
brain
is
holistic,
parallel,
and

analog,
with
self-‐organizing
tendencies.

The
human
eye
sees
objects
in
their

entirety
before
perceiving
their

individual
parts
The
whole
is
“other”
than
the
sum
of

its
parts.

We
ﬁll
in
blank
spaces
to
complete
images.
John
Carroll
favours
this
kind
of
inferential
learning
in
minimalism.

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Cognitive Bases: Constructivism
Learner
experiences
an
environment
ﬁrst-‐hand,

gets

trust-‐worthy
knowledge.

Self-‐directed
learners
must
act
on
the

environment
to
acquire
and
test
new

knowledge.
Instructors
are
facilitators,
not
teachers.
The
learning
context
is
central
to
the
learning

itself

Learning
is
an
active,
social
process.
Learners
should
collaborate
to
arrive
at
shared

understanding.
This
social
approach
has
developed
into…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Knowledge
is
activated
in
the
world
as
much
as
in
the
head
of
an
individual.
It
exists
within
systems
which
are
accessed
through
people
participating
in
activities.
Cognitive Bases: Connectivism
Learning
=
creating
connections
and
elaborating
a
network.

In
this
metaphor,
a
node
is
anything
that
can
be
connected
to

another
node
such
as
an
organisation,
information,
data,

feelings
and
images.

Learning
may
reside
in
non-‐human
appliances.
Learning
is
more
critical
than
knowing.
Maintaining
and
nurturing
connections
facilitates
continual

learning.
Perceiving
connections
between
ﬁelds,
ideas
and

concepts
is
a
core
skill.
Currency
(accurate,
up-‐to-‐date
knowledge)
is
the
intent
of

learning
activities.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Integrated Learning:
Dimensions of Competency
Integrated
Learning
Literal
Content
Communication
Cognition
A1
Beginner
A2
Basic
B1
Threshold
Community
Complexity
Criteria
Selection
C1
Functional
B2
Advanced
C2
Mastery
Quantity
Quality
In
moving
from
contingent
need
to

confusion,
we
still
learn
more.
Interfaces,
hardware,
software,

user
assistance,
hands-‐on
and

conceptual
combined
COMPLEXITY
≠
CHAOS!
Quantity
of
information
>
contingent

need
learner
gets
confused,

sense
of
chaos
Can’t
keep
track
of
it
all

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
As
richness
of
content

increases,
our
knowledge

becomes
more
and
more

complex,
cognitively

speaking.
We
return

regularly
to
the
same

place,
but
on
a
higher

cognitive
level
COGNITIVE-‐SYMBOLIC
COMPLEXITY
RICHNESS
OF
THE
CONTENT
+
+
-
The Cognitive Spiral:
Generating Cognitive Demand
Bloom’s
Pyramid
Adapted from a scheme by Dr. Neus Lorenzo
O
PPO
R
TU
N
ITY,PR
A
CTICE

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
“EDIBLE!”
-Guide Michelin
What if a Restaurant
Advertised itself like this?
Diners don’t want edibleThey want delicious!
WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENTIRE CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE - WHEREVER WE MAY BE IN THE ORG CHART
Customers don’t want usable
They want a great experience!

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
What Happens When
We Learn by Doing?
Seen
this

before?
Is
it
helpful?
What
impression
does
a
user
get
of
your

company
when
s/he
sees
this
on
the
screen?

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
What Happens When
We Learn by Doing?
Roger
C.
Schank’s
Schema
-‐
We
remember
independent,
self-‐
contained
scripts,
or
Memory
Organization
Packets
(MOP’s)
Restaurant Airplane Clothing
Shop
PayBeing

seated Eat
Choose
Romantic

Conversation
PayBeing

seated Eat
Choose
Pay
Choose
Fasten

Seatbelt
Try
on
MOP’s
are
composed

of
scenes,
which
can

be
generalized
from

one
MOP
to
another
Serve

wine
REF:
http://cogprints.org/637/1/LearnbyDoing_Schank.html

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
What Happens When
We Learn by Doing?
If
we
learn
about
“paying”
in
a
restaurant...
Are
we
learning
something
speciﬁc
to
the
MOP
“Restaurant?”
Are
we
learning
something
generalizable
to
multiple
MOP’s
-‐

i.e.
a
scene
called
“paying?”
Are
we
learning
something
about
some
more
abstract
MOP

that
has
nothing
to
do
with
the
current
MOP
or
scene
(e.g.

“economy”)?
You
are
the
architect
of
this
experience!
REF:
http://cogprints.org/637/1/LearnbyDoing_Schank.html

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
...AND WHEN????
Integrated Competency Learning
Adapted
by
Dr.
Neus
Lorenzo
from
Phil
Ball
&
Keith
Kelly
(2009)

Ref:
http://ow.ly/dLK8g

&

http://goo.gl/Ul3A2
+
Individually
signiﬁcant
contextualisation
(contingency)
+Socio-‐cultural
construction
(information

sharing,
mentoring)
+Procedural

Memorisation
+
Cognitive
construction

and
process
reasoning
+Code:
Mastery
of
the

language,
interface,

iconography...
+Thematic
knowledge
(SME)
User
Learning Space
WHERE IN THIS SPACE
DO YOU WANT YOUR
USERS?
The
architecture
of

the
scenes
we
design

for
our
user/learners

are
determinant

factors

User
Assistance
has
to
be
Googleable!
And needs to come up first…
A Group is not a Community
“Finding is the new Doing” –Ian Barker
Create your own stakeholder communities-
including user/learners as full collaborators

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
Integrated Learning Communities
Make your cookies Public
Let people know what you
are tracking.
Attribute material you reuse in
your UA – from both
Treat
inside
stakeholders
and
customers
the
same
way
Turn users’ tips and tricks
into training materials

Presentation
©
2013
Ray
Gallon
all
rights
reserved
RAY
GALLON
CULTURECOM
Email:
infodesign@culturecom.net
Thank
You!
Google
Plus:
+Ray
Gallon
Twitter:
@RayGallon
LinkedIn:
Ray
Gallon
Check
out
my
blog,
Rant
of
a
Humanist
Nerd:
http://humanistnerd.culturecom.net
Portions
of
this
presentation
based
on
research
by

the
Transformation
Society
Research
group.
Link
to
Adobe
webinars
on
UA
and
cognitive
science
here:

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2013/02/cognitive_design_user_assistance.html
Related
white
papers
published
on
Adobe
site:
•Changing Paradigms in Technology and Communication
•Crossing Boundaries: Implications for the Content Industries
Link:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?event=custom&sku=FS0003673&e=tcs_whitepaper

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