User-education Guidelines for Mobile Terminals and E-services

1. User-education Guidelines for Mobile Terminals and E-services Martin Böcker, Michael Tate, Margareta Flygt, Pascale Parodi, Bruno von Niman, Matthias Schneider-Hufschmidt, David Williams, Pekka Ketola (ETSI STF 285)

2. Overview • Why User Guides matter • Who needs them • When are they needed • Current problems and practice • Minimum quality standards proposed by ETSI STF 285 • Scope and Examples • Outlook

3. The general image…

4. Why user guides matter to the consumer • They are a part of the overall user experience • They contribute to the user’s perception of the product quality • They help the user discover and understand new functions • Like the product itself they are designed according to user needs

5. Why user guides matter to the manufacturer • They are one of the means for expressing brand values and messages • A function that is not known or understood will not generate ARPU • They are required (legal and regulatory requirements)

6. Who needs them “No need for user guides if the UI is sufficiently self explanatory” • Yes, but mobile ICT products: • are highly complex • are difficult to set up • have miniaturized input and output devices • become even smaller even if screen resolution increases • evolve fast • are used by non experts

7. Who needs them? “No need for user guides if the UI is sufficiently self explanatory” • Yes, but mobile ICT products: • UI concepts are inadequately borrowed from PCs • They interact with PCs and other devices (e.g. for synchronization) • Many feature concepts aren’t understood • Services are often presented seamlessly • The source of errors (device, service, network) is often unclear

8. Who needs them? • Users are heterogeneous • Previous knowledge about features and UI concepts differs • They range from power users to one-feature-only users • Users differ in their cultural background, but use ICT products that are produced for a global market without large differences • Users differ in their physical and psychological needs and abilities (e.g. immigrants with limited local-language skills, low-literacy users, elderly or handicapped users)

9. When is user education needed? • User education is needed throughout the product life cycle

10. Wider problem context • Some typical problems users have: • Users fail to set up their device • Users don’t know about their personal subscription • User guides are needed in first-time set up and in error situations • Some features (e.g. Call Forwarding) are complex and have consequences • Little or no information available on tariffing for services

11. Wider problem context • Problems with current user guidance: • User guide is incomplete • The information cannot be found • The language used is inadequate • The structure of the guide is inadequate • The explanation is too abstract • The user guide is written without a specific user in mind • The information cannot be perceived adequately • The functionality or SW implementation is not frozen at the time the user guide has to be completed • The technical writer describes a product s/he doesn’t really know

12. Cost-benefit trade-offs • Some relevant cost-benefit trade-offs related to providing user education are: • Frustration with failure to fully being able to use a product leads to reduced ARPU and low brand loyalty • Insufficient user education can lead to costs in customer care centres • Written user guides are often not up to date at time of print • Sometimes even the product is out of date at time of shipping (SW updates) • Products are sent in as faulty because users don’t understand how they work

13. Current practice • In spite of cost-benefit trade-offs: • Cheapest, minimum effort solutions • Very small fonts for cost saving • Symbols to save space for text and costs for translating • Reduced volume to save paper and reduce box sizes • Wrong assumptions about what the users know • User-guide related activities are outsourced • No effort spent of user education for handicapped users • Too little time for adjusting user guides to product changes • Not all procedures are mentioned in detail • Functions are described without preconditions • Usability tests of user guides are the exceptions • Same text different target groups and products

14. STF 285 • The European Commission (EC), as part of the eEurope initiative, commissioned ETSI to develop guidelines for improving user education. • STF 285 is to address: • The definition of a minimum standard for user guides. • Guidelines for user education using different media. • User education for elderly and impaired users. • The evaluation of user education.

15. STF 285 • The deliverable ETSI DEG 202 417 covers: • An analysis of the role of user education for ICT products • Generic (media-independent) guidelines • Specific guidelines • for paper-based user guides • for terminal-based user guides • for screen-based user guides • for user guides on portable media • for audio user guides • Other ways of providing user education • User education and design for all • Usability evaluation of user guidance

16. Which media for which users / products / situations?

17. Media-independent guidelines • Requirements of the development process • Content and structure • Content Management Systems (CMS) • Language and terminology • Illustrations • Localisation • General customer requirements

18. Media-independent guidelines

19. Paper-based user guides • Format and layout • Formal structure • Consistency and logical structure • Main and secondary guides • Legal and regulatory requirements • The printing process

20. Terminal-based user guides (Support in the Device) • Support in the device is available in many forms: • Help texts • Demonstrations • Interactive tutors / avatars • Tips • Setup / configuration wizards

21. Advantages Content can be updated in real time Text can be read in the dark Text can be searched for easily Text can be varied in size for partially sighted users The reader can be automatically led through the text The screen can be interactive Disadvantages Everyone can read a book Computers are not always available for use Computers are not always connected to the web Computers are normally in a fixed location Prolonged reading can produce eye strain Readers scan information rather than read in a linear fashion as they do with text Screen / Web-based user guides

22. Screen / Web-based user guides

23. Other ways of providing user education • User guides on CD-ROM • Audio user guides • User groups and fora

24. User education and Design for All • User education for • Elderly users • Visually-impaired users • Hearing-impaired users • Users with cognitive impairments • Low literacy users • Users with communication impairments • Children

25. Usability evaluation of user guides • Issues addressed • Method • Test sample • Questionnaires • Analysis • Reporting • Focussing on the specific requirements of testing user guides

26. Outlook • ETSI DEG 202 417 is available as a stable draft and will be finalised in May 2006 and published in September 2006. • Prior to publication, the document is reviewed with experts from industry and academia.

27. Thank you for your attention