Get with the groove

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” Charles Mingus

When you don't know what you need to know

Four Modes of Seeking Information and How to Design for Them
By Donna Maurer.

A post on the Boxes and Arrows site reviews an Information Architecture Conference presentation and addresses a common problem for the plain language consultant when considering web design:

3. Don’t know what you need to know
The key concept behind this mode is that people often don’t know exactly what they need to know. They may think they need one thing but need another; or, they may be looking at a website without a specific goal in mind.

This mode of seeking information occurs in a number of situations:

* Complex domains such as legal, policy, or financial. For example, a staff member may want to know how many weeks maternity leave they are entitled to, but may need to know the conditions surrounding that leave. We should read the terms and conditions of new products and services as there maybe important restrictions, but they are too often buried in legal garble that we don’t read.
* Any time we wish to persuade the user. For example, we would love people to know more about information architecture and usability, but they often don’t know that the concepts even exist. They may think they want to know how to make an accessible nested fly-out menu; we think they need to know more about organising the content properly.
* Unknown domains. For example, when someone is told by friends that he or she should check out a new service, product or website, but does not yet know why he or she would want to know about it.
* Keeping up to date. People often want to make sure they keep up to date with what is happening within an industry or topic, but are not looking for a specific answer.

The challenge is providing an answer while exposing people to the necessary information, thus showing what they may need to know. This can be achieved by:

* Straightforward answers. Simple, concise answers allow people to have their initial information need met. For example, in the four situations above the websites could include a summary of the maternity leave benefit, the key issues of concern in the terms and conditions, an outline of the benefits of the new website or service, and a list of latest releases respectively.
* More detailed information. Make more detailed information easily available. This may take the form of related links or contextual links in the body of the content.

The solutions allow people the satisfaction of getting an answer and then the opportunity to get additional information.

Cutting through the chaff

Proof that it can be done:

Federal Judge Takes Attorneys to Task Over Tactics
Shannon P. Duffy
The Legal Intelligencer
04-17-2006

Senior U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam recently gave a good finger-wagging to the lawyers on both sides of an insurance bad faith case by disposing of a hefty stack of pretrial motions with a two-page memorandum and a one-page order that denied them all.

"It seems clear that counsel are more interested in annoying each other than in advancing meritorious positions," Fullam wrote in Micocci v. Allstate Insurance Co.

The tersely worded opinion -- just four paragraphs long -- is classic Fullam, taking the lawyers to task for spending hours drafting a slew of motions that, in the judge's opinion, were a complete waste of time...

The Darned Dictionary

Fact of the Day: American Dictionary
"The first dictionary of American English was published in April 1828. The two-volume dictionary was written solely by the American lexicographer Noah Webster. He began work on it in 1807 and finished in 1824-1825. It contained 12,000 words and 30,000-40,000 definitions that had not appeared in any earlier dictionary. The rights to the dictionary were sold in 1843 by the Webster estate to George and Charles Merriam."

We have all worn the strait-jacket of Webster's thinking since April 1828. And I wonder if anyone asked Noah where he got his authority to do it! Or is it nerve?

The Most Underutilized Tool for Effective Communication

From Rosa at lifehack.com

"... Let’s look at a few examples of common work related words that are often used interchangeably in many organizations, and I’ll explain how we use them very specifically in my company to create our own language of intention with them.

Objective and Goal

For us, our objectives are the strategic objectives which are company wide, shared by every single person in the organization. Goals relate to people individually, and what they wish to learn and achieve to grow within the organization on a personal basis.

Systems and Processes

With these two words, process is the word of choice when the way things work involve the performance of people. This is easy to remember, in that we keep the 3 p’s of people, performance, and process together. On the other hand, systems refer to things like paper trails, electronic and IT systems, and those largely automated structures we have in place; they are universally “systemic” and not driven by individual choice. Once the setting part is done, the people involvement is minimal.

Management and Leadership

Both such robust, intricate, and complex verbs! We find it useful to use ‘classic Webster’ on this one: “Manage; to bring about or succeed in accomplishing; contrive. Lead; to go before or with to show the way, conduct or escort.” Generally management is about our operational strategies, and leadership our visionary ones.

Which concepts would you love to have better defined in your company? How can specific vocabulary help cut through confusion and ambiguity for you? "

Why Do Comics Work?

Luke at the Functioning Form blog has reported on a presentation at the IA2006 conference on using comics to present information most effectively:

why do comics work?
· Communication: very approachable and easy to digest; we want people to read our documents; a universal medium that transcends language
· Imagination: through abstraction people engage with the concept. They interpret and add themselves into the scenario depicted.
· You want to communicate concepts not interface elements. Show just enough UI to understand what is going on, users will imagine the rest.
· Expression: added degree of context from image + text
· Motion: convey time, animation, and movement. Comics provide an idea of how long or how fast.
· Iteration: really easy to iterate comics. Think of it as paper prototyping for product ideas

You can find the full presentation at Kevin Cheng’s site: Communicating Concepts Through Comics (a PDF) using the link inthe title above, but it is clear that you had to be there....