One intranet how-to case study..........

Subject: One intranet how-to case study..........
From: Smokey Lynne L Bare <slbare -at- JUNO -dot- COM>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 21:48:13 -0500

snip>
One person did observe that on-line documentation can be very
inconvenient if you don't do your work at a computer (which sounds
obvious
until you realize that people do forget that not all work takes place at
a
networked terminal on a desk!)
snip>

In a white paper I did for a business environment which dealt with this
problem, the distribution of information was provided on the intranet via
kiosks placed at main locations (where the users were assigned for work
areas - cubes along with plant floors).

This concept was sold to the skepticals, who hated anything involving a
monitor (whether by using it in general or being tied to it for their
job). It was decided to explain it was just like using an ATM in regard
to ease of use and amount of time on it. Though...it may sound over
simplified, it was NOT (for those of you who have been there know what I
mean - the easier the final product is...the more back-office designed
programs are involved).

The employees had a simplified icon selection, interactive form feedback
after chunked information, following much like an ATM's premise. Though
a simplistic approach, the results were beneficial, as the hits on this
site created a need for a real-time response TC.
This was based on a very good needs analysis form based around R.
Robinson's ISO how-to documentation (question and answer) manual.
Questions were re-structured to the end user's information gathering
habits before the materials were presented.

Story boarding took place first, modifications were made, past experience
from scripting ATM materials was used, and the employees selected the
kiosk locations. Pulling an avionics tech manual for a part number, was
much easier this way than running back to an office (or running back to
your cube in an integrated software test lab during a deployment stage).
At the same time the employee could switch the screen to see how much
overtime he/she had accrued for a long weekend family ski trip.

I can not stress what my senior fellow TCers (with much more experience
than me) have written on this list....know thy audience and their
learning patterns. The kiosks were also designed much like the sidewalk
kiosks on my college campus - tall for space on the tubular enclosure to
post notices, bulletins, for sales, and so on. Items were pasted on the
backsides, thus making it a user-friendly experience not a need-to-use
only experience. Of course, in a regular business environment,
modification is done, but we encouraged use of the employees suggestions
in the design and analysis phases of the project. A master story board
was displayed for employee feed back for link flow, prior to the
information architecture design.

Needs were turned over to the various dept. writing teams and managers to
provide what was needed to be placed on the 'net' first, followed by what
was 'requested' to be placed on it (if approved by management). The
project team was huge, but the implementation team was a handful. No
ownership issues occurred - so far. Hope this can provide some use to
your request for help on your project.

from a freezing mid-northern bare's den,

Smokey
--------- End forwarded message ----------




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