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PRESENTED BY
Don't Take That Tone With Me!
Ellis Pratt Cherryleaf
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Director at Cherryleaf, a
technical writing services
and training company in the
UK
About Me
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Overview
The traditional approach
The “wrong” way
What are they doing differently?
Why are they breaking the rules?
What should you do?
Microsoft’s “No More Robot Speak”
Image: Tim Peake
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The traditional approach
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Clear
Succinct
Get to the point
Optimise for translation
The “right” way to write
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Avoid idioms
No contractions
Formal tone of voice
The “right” way to write
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Four main principles:
1.Choose an action-oriented approach
2.Anchor the tool in the task domain
3.Support error recognition and recovery
4.Support reading to do, study and locate
Minimalism principles
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The “right” way
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The wrong way to do it?
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Anything wrong with this?
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Or this?
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They are not the only ones
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Tina the Technical Surfer?
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Easy peasy, lemon squeezy…
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Welcome to the pleasuredome
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As for release notes…
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Question
Are those examples?....
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Dad at the disco? Down with the kids?
Image: Rankin for Oliver Spence
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What are they doing differently?
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More conversational
More wordy
They use contractions
It’s more submissive in tone
It’s nurturing
What’s the difference?
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Why are they breaking the rules?
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Was created when
technology was big, scary
and expensive
The traditional model
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Safety is important
Risk
Anxious users
The traditional model’s assumptions
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Technology is changing
Image: Jim CarreyFar
1993
2013
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Try before you buy
Software as a Service
App abandonment
How we purchase technology is changing
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How we purchase technology is changing
User Assistance
Learn
Try
Buy
Use
Advocate
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What should I do?
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It depends..
Are your products big, scary and expensive?
Are your users anxious or frustrated?
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The Affective Context Model
Value Behaviour Tone we are attracted to
Anxiety High motivation Dominant
Boredom Low motivation Submissive
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Example
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Example
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Microsoft’s “No More Robot Speak"
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“No more robot speak”
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Recognising they have a problem
Locate cells that create a circular reference
Microsoft Excel cannot automatically calculate all open workbooks when one of them contains a circular reference, a formula that directly or indirectly refers back to the cell that contains the formula.
To locate the cells in the circular reference, use the Circular Reference toolbar. The toolbar helps you move to each cell in the circular reference so that you can change the formulas as needed to correct the circular reference. Microsoft Excel displays the Circular Reference toolbar automatically when a circular reference occurs.
1 On the Circular Reference toolbar, click the first cell in the Navigate Circular Reference box.
2 Review the formula in the cell. If you cannot determine whether the cell is the cause of the circular reference, click the next cell in the Navigate Circular Reference box.
3 Continue to review and correct the circular reference until the status bar no longer displays the word "Circular.
Tips
· To display the Circular Reference toolbar manually, click Customize on the Tools menu, click the Toolbars tab, and then select the Circular Reference check box.
· The status bar displays the word "Circular," followed by a reference to one of the cells contained in the circular reference. If the work "Circular" appears without a cell reference, the active worksheet does not contain the circular reference.
· When the Circular Reference toolbar is displayed, tracer arrows are displayed to point out each cell referenced in the formula and the cells that depend on the formula.
· You can move between cells in a circular reference by double-clicking the tracer arrows.
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Microsoft’s process
1. Understand
2. Point of view
3. Brainstorm
4. Be more direct
5. The moral
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Understand
Where is this in the customer journey?
What happens before?
What happens next?
When does it appear?
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Understand
Determine the user’s intent
Understanding what the customers are looking for. Microsoft were taking things for granted.
Use search data from office.com and Windows. com (long tail search data)
Lots of data analysis
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Lots of searches for “Bold”
Thought they meant to bold
text in a cell
Users meant to bold a
border
Discover intent
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Point of view
What is the one thing the user has to get in order to
move forward?
It meant they could remove a lot of content from long
topics, as they knew their goals
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They carried out usability tests and mass surveys
They tested three different versions of a Help topic
Formal
Empathetic
Overboard
Microsoft’s research
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2100 survey respondents - they saw 2 out of 3 versions
Asked to rate by professionalism, ease of understanding, quality of information
Microsoft
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For all types of audience
overwhelmingly prefer the
empathetic version (20%
difference)
Results replicated in other
surveys for developer
documentation
Survey findings
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Auto save
Old version - tells you you should have saved your work, when user is in a state of grief
New version - empathy then task
30% smaller
Microsoft -Example
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It includes a resolution
There’s no blame
It uses everyday words
Fewer links in Help
New Help style
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Be more direct
Be more transparent
Cut out clutter
Voice principles
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They ran some tests
Topics were 30% shorter, so they were more economical
Translators found it easier to understand the source text
What about localisation?
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Summary
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Empathise with your users
Consider the pre-sales
reading of technical
documentation today
Stick to the tried and test
methods if users are
frustrated or anxious
Summary
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For more details, or to take advantage of this offer, contact sales@madcapsoftware or click here.
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More information
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Questions
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© Cherryleaf 2016
Images and screenshots ©
their respective owners
End