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Professionalize Your Add-on or App with Icons and Documentation Best Practices

Professionalize Your Add-on or App with Icons and Documentation Best Practices. Robert Des Rosier, LabVIEW Partner Program Laura Hayden, R&D Graphic Designer Steven Moser, Technical Writer National Instruments. Professionalize Your Add-on or App with Icons . Laura Hayden Graphic Designer.

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Professionalize Your Add-on or App with Icons and Documentation Best Practices

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  1. Professionalize Your Add-on or App with Icons and Documentation Best Practices Robert Des Rosier,LabVIEW Partner Program Laura Hayden, R&D Graphic Designer Steven Moser, Technical Writer National Instruments

  2. Professionalize Your Add-on or App with Icons Laura Hayden Graphic Designer

  3. What I Do Icon Artist Image Translator Consistency Reviewer

  4. What "Professionalize" Means • Brand Your API • Think About Functionality • Remove Text • Don't Reinvent The Wheel • Use Color Wisely • Be Consistent

  5. Brand Your API

  6. Brand Your API

  7. Think About Functionality

  8. Remove Text

  9. Don’t Reinvent The Wheel

  10. Don’t Reinvent The Wheel

  11. Use Color Wisely vischeck.com

  12. verb object Be Consistent Add Network Device

  13. Be Consistent Get Disk Image

  14. Be Consistent Clear Image Database

  15. Putting It All Together

  16. Putting It All Together

  17. Putting It All Together

  18. Tools / Resources LabVIEW Icon editor Axialis Icon Workshop Corel Paint Shop Pro ni.com/iconlibrary LabVIEWPartnerProgram@ni.com eTrainings at ni.com/addondevcenter

  19. Summary • Brand Your API • Think About Functionality • Remove Text • Don't Reinvent The Wheel • Use Color Wisely • Be Consistent

  20. Professionalize Your Add-on with Documentation Best Practices Steven Moser Technical Writer National Instruments

  21. Who Am I? • Technical writer = writing + testing + usability • LabVIEW Development System • Robotics Module • MathScript RT Module • Control Design & Simulation Module • Jitter Analysis Toolkit • Third Party Licensing & Activation Toolkit • VI Analyzer Toolkit

  22. Why Is Documentation Important?

  23. Why Is Documentation Important? • Documentation is a product feature • Supplements the software • Adds credibility to your products • Reduces number of support calls • Meets Compatible with LabVIEW requirements

  24. Compatible with LabVIEW Guidance

  25. What Kind of Documentation is Important? Goal: Answer “pre-use” questions Useractivities • Goal: Provide in-product support for features

  26. Pre-Use Education • How do I install? • If I upgrade, what new features/bug fixes are available? • What OSes are supported? Which LabVIEW versions? • Where do I find features, examples, and help so I can get started? • If I need support, how do I get it? • How do I purchase your product?

  27. Pre-Use Education Solution: Readme files • Accessible prior to installation • Template available at ni.com/addondevcenter

  28. In-Product Support—Context Help Answer for users,“Does this fit my use case?”

  29. In-Product Support—Context Help VI descriptions NOT “Acquires data.”

  30. In-Product Support—Context Help “Returns two arrays that describe the magnitudes and angles of obstacles the device detects within a given range.”

  31. In-Product Support—Context Help “Returns two arrays that describe the magnitudes and angles of obstacles the device detects within a given range.” Verb Output(s)  Input(s)”

  32. In-Product Support—Context Help “Returnstwo arrays that describe the magnitudes and angles of obstacles the device detects within a given range.” VerbOutput(s) Input(s)”

  33. In-Product Support—Context Help “Returnstwo arrays that describe the magnitudes and angles of obstacles the device detects within a given range.” VerbOutput(s)Input(s)”

  34. In-Product Support—Context Help VI descriptions NOT “Forward kinematics of a robot arm is computed by this Forward Kinematics VI.”

  35. In-Product Support—Context Help “Calculates the homogenous transform or transforms that represents the position of a robotic arm end effector given the joint angles of the arm.”

  36. In-Product Support—Context Help “Calculates the homogenous transform or transforms that represents the position of a robotic arm end effector given the joint angles of the arm.” Verb Output(s)  Input(s)

  37. In-Product Support—Context Help “Calculates the homogenous transform or transforms that represents the position of a robotic arm end effectorgiven the joint angles of the arm.” “VerbOutput(s) Input(s)”

  38. In-Product Support—Context Help “Calculates the homogenous transform or transforms that represents the position of a robotic arm end effectorgiven the joint angles of the arm.” “VerbOutput(s)Input(s)”

  39. In-Product Support—Context Help Input/output descriptions • Provide information users otherwise must test: • NOT “path is the path to the log file.” • INSTEAD “path specifies anabsolute path to the file to which you want to log data. If you specify an empty or relative path, this function returns an error.

  40. In-Product Support—Context Help Input/output descriptions • Provide units in which values are expressed, default values, error information • NOT “timeout is the time to wait for a response.” • INSTEAD “timeout (ms) sets the amount of time to wait for a response from the host. If timeout (ms) elapses, this VI returns error code 5. If you set timeout (ms) to -1 (default), this VI waits indefinitely.

  41. In-Product Support—Detailed Help Expand from “Does this fit my use case?” to “How does this object work?”

  42. In-Product Support—Detailed Help • Cross references to relevant examples • Error codes VIs can return • Screenshots of workflows

  43. In-Product Support Solution: Context help + HTML Help • Use tools from Partner team to populatecontext help and generate detailed HTML help • ni.com/addondevcenter

  44. Localization • English  ? • ?  English • Vendors and tools exist worldwide, but… • Take advantage of each others’ knowledge—Ask about solutions at ni.com/addondevcenter

  45. Summary Deliverable: Readme file Useractivities • Deliverables: Context help and HTML help

  46. Where to Go from Here • ni.com/addondevcenter • Readme HTML file template • VI Properties Editor tool • VI to XML tool for creating HTML Help • Notepad++, KompoZer—HTML editors (free) • FAR—Compiled HTML Help (CHM) editor (purchase) • http://helpware.net/FAR/ • Requires Microsoft HTML Help Workshop (free)

  47. Related Sessions Hands-On: VI Package ManagerTuesday 10:30 AM 18C Creating a Software Evaluation in 10 MinutesWednesday 2:15 PM 10C LabVIEW Add-on of the YearWednesday 3:30 PM 10C

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