Book Review: Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps, by Joe Welinske
Joe Welinske’s latest book, Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps (published June 2011), fills a gap in tech comm literature that is sorely needed. Joe explores strategies and techniques for providing user assistance for mobile devices, and goes in depth with iOS, Android, Windows, and tablets.
Early in the book, he explains:
Hopefully the organizations that employ us will start buying smartphone devices for us to work with just as they provide us with desktop workstations (13).
It would be odd to be an IT employee in a company without being provisioned a computer. Now that mobile is becoming more common, shouldn’t we also be provisioned a mobile device too, if not several?
One of my colleagues just recently purchased his first smartphone. He decided to buy it himself rather than asking our organization to pay for it. Usually only employees with special needs to be reached outside of work times receive smartphones.
But the world has changed. We know that mobile is quickly becoming the most common way for people across the world to access the Internet. It’s much more common to consider and plan mobile development at the same time that you’re building a browser-based application. Mobile is no longer an afterthought. It should be part of our regular workflow, strategy, and deliverables — not just for developers, but for technical writers too.
Given the need to add user assistance deliverables to mobile, where do you start? Almost every mobile device has an emulator or simulator that allows you to explore the functionality from another computer. You also need the right software and setup. For most of us, this is a new world with unfamiliar terrain. How do you connect, how do you test, what software do you need, how do you publish, and how does it all vary by device? Joe covers all of this in depth for the major mobile platforms.
Additionally, he explores techniques for integrating help into mobile apps. Brevity and user testing are guiding principles. But as for a standard, “the look and feel of the UA is as varied as the apps themselves” (19). You can use everything from Dashcode (a mobile help authoring tool), to text built-in to the app, a standalone webpage, or many other solutions.
As for mobile help formats, I was also pleased to read the following advice for mobile documentation:
Many support situations can benefit from a richer level of presentation to the user. Videos and demos can provide a more engaging experience. The audio/visual capabilities of video make it a great choice for showing complex tasks and helping the viewer feel at ease. Demonstrations are useful for presenting an automated tutorial about tasks and procedures (28).
Yes, even on a mobile device, videos and other rich presentations have a place. When you consider the advanced interactions with mobile devices — the gestures, the pinches and squeezes, the flicks and two-finger scroll, the back swipe, etc., you need to see some of these gestures in action to understand.
Undoubtedly, the diversity of mobile devices makes documentation tricky. Joe says the “wildly different UIs that we find in our apps mean that users can’t necessarily carry conventions from one app to another. Unique icons, buttons, and menu structures can create angst for users” (41).
The operating systems and hardware buttons vary from the iPhone, Android, Windows, and tablets. Android itself has many different devices, with different buttons across the bottom. Not only do the operating systems vary, so do the built-in browsers. You need to test your output in all of these devices.
Add to this mix some difficulty in describing finger/touch movements (are these in your style guide?) and how those gesture words might translate, and you have a real challenge. What may have seemed simple suddenly becomes a full-blown documentation challenge.
Joe’s book is an excellent guide to get started in the world of mobile user assistance. The book is brief (142 pages) but thorough enough to get you comfortable in this space.
To learn more or buy the book, see Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps.
I bought Joe’s epub version several weeks ago and used Madcap Flare 7′s mobile WebHelp feature to create my first mobile WebHelp. (I also reviewed his book here: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/developing-user-assistance-for-mobile-apps/16039187).
It was very easy. I minimized some of the content and linked to the regular WebHelp for details due to the smaller screen size and wanting to limit making users have to scroll. Users don’t have to stretch to enlarge the text. I created a style sheet for mobile with 12 pt for the normal text and 14 pt for headings. I even created an overview tutorial with Camtasia 7 in Quicktime .mov format. I’m previewing the output in Google Chrome — no need for an emulator. I can’t imagine expecting users to view regular WebHelp from a mobile device. The only thing I’m trying to find out how to do now is video screen capture for an iPhone. I made the tutorial video from opening the mobile app in Google Chrome.
Gina, thanks for your comment. You mentioned that you were trying to figure out how to do a video screen capture for an iPhone. I recently created a screencast with an iPhone here. I’m on a PC, so I had to borrow a Mac that had the development environment set up. I also had to borrow an iPhone that had the app on it. Otherwise, there’s no other way to record screencasts of iPhone apps. The only alternative is to hold up a little camcorder and record the screen that way.
Tom,
I really like your iPhone video! We have a Mac here, so maybe the developers could set it up for me. I wonder if there’s a cool way to show the cursor? In Camtasia 7, I used the Cursor Effects set as “Highlight effect” in a light blue translucent color. It kind of looks like a fingertip tapping the screen instead of just using the default arrow cursor.
Tom,
We just found this free iPhone emulator: http://www.testiphone.com. You can press F12 in Chrome and edit the text with the Chrome Developer Tools.
Gina
As a UX architect, I had to make the decision last year whether to buy my own smart phone or wait for the company to buy one for me. In spite of all the logic that says companies should provide these devices for those who have to design and develop for them–I took the more realistic route and bought mine. I think anyone who wants to design and develop for this environment needs to suck it up and do the same–otherwise you’re going to get left behind in this new arena of user interactions. My first mobile release goes out on Saturday, and I never would have been able to understand the user experience of smart phones without having jumped in as a user myself. BTW, the Safari browser has an option under “Advanced” that says “Show Develop on the toolbar.” That provides a developer’s menu which includes a choice called “Agent” that lets the browser emulate the major mobile devices.
Mike, thanks for the tip about Safari emulating mobile devices. I didn’t know about that. Seems very useful. Also, I agree with you about having to buy the devices to stay current with the trends. Even if a company supplies a device, most likely it won’t give you the variety of platforms that you need.
With regards to the comment toward the end of this review: “Are these in your style guide and how do these gesture words translate?” — the answer is yes. Have a look at the Windows Phone International style guides and terminology available on The Microsoft Language Portal:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/terminology/archive/2011/08/09/windows-phone-7-international-style-guides-now-available.aspx
Hello Tom,
First of all, let me tell you that your Usability test was really interesting and relevant. I am currently developping an idea of a video help to be inserted into the interface of some applications with the company I work for.
Out of curiosity, I want to know if you could provide me with some statistic details of your usability lab:
– How many users took part in this experiment (new, intermediate and advanced users)?
– How many users actually relied on the video tutorial instead of written help (percentage if possible)?
– How accurate were the video tutorials?
Those statistics are relevant to submit for my colleagues and superiors.
Sorry, I can’t be that specific with the information. I was probably skirting the border anyway with my description of the usability lab tests.
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