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At the speed of thought

Amy's_lentil_vegetable_soupI returned from a visit to my parents, recently. My parents live in another state–far enough away that it’s difficult to visit them more than once or twice a year.

My father has had Alzheimer’s for several years. For the past few visits, I have met a new father on each visit–the same person, of course, but, at the same time, a different one.

On this trip, I resisted the urge to look for the father from my last visit so I could get to know my new one. While I miss the father I knew, it was rewarding to get to know the one I have, now. He’s just as special to me as the person I saw the last time; but this one is special in his own way.

One evening, as he and I sat at the dinner table with my wife and my mother, he considered a bowl of vegetable soup for a moment before picking up his fork to eat it. This was a bit curious to me. As the soup ran between the tines of his fork with each bite, my mother tried, unsuccessfully, to convince him to use his spoon. My wife observed that the fork was actually the perfect utensil for the task he was trying to accomplish–he wanted to eat the vegetables first. After he ate all the vegetables, he picked up his spoon and finished his soup.

He knew what he was doing all along. Once we were able to move at the speed of his thought, things went much smoother for everyone.

I’m glad I had a chance to meet this father of mine. I’m still learning from him and I look forward to meeting the next one and what he’ll teach me.

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Writing it down

WritingWithQuillI added another goal to my blog vision project, today: to post my online resume and portfolio. It’s a goal that’s been rattling around for a while, but I’ve never actually got around to writing it down.

That this goal has been rattling around for so long (maybe 6 years, or more if I’m really honest) illustrates the importance of making things visible.

Reflecting on why it took so long to materialize, I came up with the following tips to prevent the next goal from taking so long.

Clear and well-defined goals are easier to commit to

Not knowing how to accomplish the goal makes it hard to commit to. Sure, I could have started with something like “have a great portfolio” as a goal (which was where I was 6 or so years ago, by the way); however, at the time, I didn’t have a clear idea about how to make that happen. To commit then would have just been frustrating and defeated the goal of having goals–actually accomplishing something. It could have been an aspiration, perhaps, but it wasn’t ready to be a goal.

“Portfolio” was the complicating word, in this case. I couldn’t think of anything that I had for a portfolio. In the intervening years, I’ve talked to people who frequently review portfolios and my definition of portfolio started to evolve. Once I redefined portfolio to mean something more along the lines of an annotated resume, that opened up the possibilities to something I could envision and see a path towards. I had a goal I could commit to writing.

Do it if it’s important. Don’t do it if it’s not.

Priorities are important.

While I wanted to have a portfolio (of any kind) since I finished my MS degree (2009), it hasn’t always been the most important thing on the list of things to do. Over the past few years, I would take it from the shelf, review it, and, until recently, put it back on the shelf in deference to something more important or, at least, more urgent.

In Agile Development terms, it never made it off the backlog.

Yesterday, however, it was well defined and with a clear path to completion, and it was important, so it’s now a goal. Had I made it a goal any earlier, it would have resulted in a lot of wasted effort (non achievable) and likely resulted in more problems (by neglecting what was important at the time).

A goal without a plan is just wishful thinking

Having a goal without a plan is what happens between the times you decide on a goal and create the plan to accomplish it. During this period, wishful thinking is a good thing, as long as it motivates a plan and the action to accomplish it. Stopping at the wishful-thinking phase, however, won’t get it done.

So, it’s on the list and I have a plan. Now, to make it happen!

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Unleash the initiative

This morning on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS (Fareed Zakaria GPS – Aug 30, 2015), U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) was interviewed about leadership in the context of Gen. McChrystal’s recent book. His interview starts at [10:36:10], a little over halfway into the program.

I liked how Gen. McChrystal started by clearing up a misconception about leadership in the U.S. military–one that I’ve heard from people with no military background and summarized from the transcript here:

Zakaria: …[in] the U.S. Army, you give orders, people listen, your job is to appear imposing.

McChrystal: …everybody thinks that a sergeant tells you to do something and you immediately do it. … In combat, soldiers are much more frightened of the enemy than they are of the sergeant. So they do things for their leaders and their comrades. …so the ability to influence and persuade and build confidence in you as a leader and in what they’re doing becomes the key task.

Zakaria: So, when you looked at…successful examples of leadership, what you found…was a guy who really was able to win the trust of people?

McChrystal: You win the trust of people, and then you unleash their initiative…

Unleash their initiative.

That has a nice ring to it. He went on to describe how to accomplish this.

Zakaria: Somebody wants to be a leader in their organization, in life. What advice would you give?

McChrystal: One, it’s going to take personal discipline… The next thing is empathy. …those core, fundamental, almost value-like traits are the key.

It’s nice to hear that empathy is a core, fundamental, trait…even for an Army general.

Now, to go and unleash some initiative!

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Day 1 with a motto

Look nice, but take some getting used to
Look nice, but take some getting used to

Still getting used to the idea. But, it seems to be working.

What does a motto do?

So far it’s helped me focus by organizing how I approach things. That’s something I didn’t quite expect. But, after trying it out, I kinda like how that works–a lot!

How?

Well. Let’s consider each word.

Empathy

It all starts from empathy. This is a new starting place for me, but I’m finding that it helps put things in perspective. I know my feelings, but that’s only one component in understanding a situation. It’s easy (too easy) to stop there. With empathy, I can include the feelings of others. With practice, I’ll be able to learn the source of those feelings to gain a much deeper and richer understanding of a situation. It’s been like turning on the lights in a dark room. (OK, maybe it’s more like turning on a night light, but it’s a start).

Data

Empathy is great (I’m finding), but objective data still has a place. On the one hand it helps put empathy in perspective. Feelings and motives are important to understand, but they can vary over time. So having data helps separate spurious and transient feelings from more profound issues. Neither data nor empathy is more important than the other; instead, they work together to provide a clearer and more complete understanding.

Enthusiasm

As my motto was coming together, it started out as just: Empathy. Data. Success. But those shoes didn’t quite work (to stretch the metaphor). Something was missing. Initially I thought about Execution. But that seemed inappropriate for a lot of reasons. Even ignoring the multiple definitions of the term, simply “getting the job done,” or “processing the data” seemed necessary, but hardly sufficient to achieve success. There needed to be some sense of conviction to the process; hence, Enthusiasm.

If you’re going to do it, do it with vigor (while not ignoring the first two points, of course).

Success

Finally, success. Does this mean riches? Maybe. But, maybe not.

Dictionary.com defines success as:

the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals.

That seems sufficient. A favorable or prosperous outcome seems sufficiently precise for the motto. Sure, the actual operationalization of  favorable or prosperous is going to vary from case to case, but in every case I can imagine, either one seems like a worthwhile goal.

 

And so begins day 1 with my new motto.

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I have a motto

Today, I as reviewing the vision document and realized I didn’t have a motto. I’m fairly certain that I didn’t have one because I’ve found coming up with them to be quite a challenge. I honestly sympathize with my students when we’ve done the motto exercise in class.

But, today, I was feeling inspired and took advantage of the inspiration to come up with:

Empathy. Data. Enthusiasm. Success.

That seems like the right order and I like them because they seem representative of what I think are important aspects of life and work. To me they seem both inspirational and aspirational. Reflecting on them helps inspire focus and a certain amount of balance. That same reflection also reminds me of how much I have to learn about each–which suits my desire to constantly learn, grow, and improve.

I suppose the next step is the schwag (t-shirts, key chains, bumper stickers, and what not), but I’m still growing into them, so that might have to wait just a bit.

 

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Studies show…

folding-map-360382_640In the quest to do more with less, one method I’ve seen used to get the job done more quickly is to rely on best practices and studies. It’s not that referring to best practices or studies is bad, but they should be the starting point for decisions, not the final word. Why?

Your context is unique

This was made obvious in my dissertation study in which the effect seen by applying best practices or not depended on what was being measured (i.e. what mattered). In the API reference topics I studied, whether using headings and design elements as suggested by the prevailing best practices or not made no difference in reading performance, but they made a significant difference in how the topics were perceived by the reader.

Those results applied to the context of my experiment and they might apply to other, similar contexts, but you’d have to test them to know for sure. Does it matter? You tell me. That, too, depends on the context.

A study showed…

A report on the effect that design variations had on a news site home page came out recently to show how a modern interface had better engagement than a more traditional, image+text interface. However, reader of the latter interface had better comprehension of the articles presented.

Since it relates design, comprehension, and engagement, I thought it was quite interesting. I skimmed the actual study, which seemed reasonable. I’m preparing myself, however, for what the provocative nature of the headline in the blog article is likely to produce.–the time when it will be used in the inevitable “studies show…” argument. It has all the components of great “studies show” ammo: it refers to modern design (timely), has mixed results (so you can quote the result that suits the argument), it has a catchy headline (so you don’t need to read the article or the report).

Remember, your context is unique

Starting from other studies and “best practices” is great. But, because your context is, invariably, unique, you’ll still need to test and validate.

When it comes to best practices and applying other studies, trust but verify.

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Reader goals – Overview

readingbookThe reader goals in this series describe the different reader and content interactions with informational content to help content developers and site managers provide the content that best accommodates their audiences’ goals. The underlying assumptions behind these interactions are twofold:

  • Readers come to informational content with some goal in mind.
  • The readers’ goals might not coincide with their content experience.

Understanding readers’ goals is critical to providing the content and experience that helps readers achieve their goals.  Understanding the relationship between reader goals and content also informs the feedback that the reader can provide and the best time to collect that feedback.

Informational content

The interactions described in this series are based on (and primarily intended for) informational content that has no specific commercial goal. These interactions might also apply to sites with commercial goals; however, they were developed for sites with no specific commercial goal.

Audience analysis

The reader-content relationships described in this series are best discovered through audience research.  Having these models in mind can help inform and direct your research. These models can also help identify and characterize the patterns you observe in your audience research.

At the same time, as a writer, I realize that it isn’t always possible to conduct audience research before the content is required. In those cases, these models provide a reasonable starting point from which to later collect data that can be used to refine your model and content. By taking what you know about your audience, you can select an interaction model that fits what you know and use that model as the basis for your initial draft of the content and its metrics.

Feedback and metrics

A key part of these interactions is to help identify what type of feedback can be collected and the best time to collect it. From the readers’ perspectives, the content the means to accomplish a goal, therefore, goal-related feedback is the most representative measure of content effectiveness.

When readers’ goals coincide with completing the content, as in the Reading to do here case, collecting goal-related feedback at the end of the content makes perfect sense. However, we found that much of the content found in  informational sites has a different relationship with readers’ goals. Recognizing this and altering the feedback instruments to match can improve the quality of the feedback on the content.

Finally, the interaction descriptions in this series are somewhat vague when it comes to specific instrumentation and metrics. This is for two reasons. First, the best instrument to use is very context specific. Second, because of this, we haven’t studied this aspect enough to make general recommendations. However, we’re working on it.

This series looks at the different site interactions that readers have with informational sites and is adapted from the full paper on the topic that I wrote with Jan Spyridakis and presented at HCII 2015: Using Readers’ and Organizations’ Goals to Guide Assessment of Success in Information Websites. See the entire series

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Reader goals – Reading to learn

This series looks at the different site interactions that readers have with informational sites and is adapted from the full paper on the topic that I wrote with Jan Spyridakis and presented at HCII 2015: Using Readers’ and Organizations’ Goals to Guide Assessment of Success in Information Websites. See the entire series

Reading to Learn (to use Later or to Apply with Other Information)

Reading to Learn to Use Later, without a particular or immediate task in mind, is similar to what Sticht described as Reading to Learn [1]. The critical distinctions between this and Reading to learn to do now and Reading to learn to do a task later are:

  • The reading task in your content is a subtask of the reader’s ultimate goal of learning a new concept or skill.
  • The reader does not have a specific goal beyond an increase in knowledge.

An example of reading that facilitates this type of reader goal, where the goals are accomplished after using the website or in conjunction with using other information, would be websites and books about design principles so as to use the information later when designing a website. The connection between the reading and the ultimate application of the knowledge is too distant to have a meaningful and identifiable cause-effect relationship.

In a Reading to Learn to Use Later goal, as shown in the figure, the reader reads information from many different locations, of which your content might be only one information source. While similar to the Reading to Be Reminded interaction type, in this interaction type, the reader is seeking more information from the content. In this interaction, the content is new and the reader might consult multiple sources to accumulate the information required to reach the learning goal.

Reading to learn
Reading to learn

It is difficult to measure how well readers are accomplishing their ultimate learning goal when their interaction with the website may be one step of many and they might not use the information until much later. However, it is reasonable to collect information about the immediate experience. For example, the content could encourage readers to interact with the page as a way to provide feedback to the reader and to collect information about the readers’ experience. The content could also include quizzes, and links or affordances such as prompts to share the content with a social network.

[1] Sticht, T.G., Fox, L.C., Hauke, R.N., Zapf, D.W.: The Role of Reading in the Navy. DTIC Document (1977)

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Reader goals – Reading to do a task later

This series looks at the different site interactions that readers have with informational sites and is adapted from the full paper on the topic that I wrote with Jan Spyridakis and presented at HCII 2015: Using Readers’ and Organizations’ Goals to Guide Assessment of Success in Information Websites. See the entire series

Reading to Do a Task Outside the Website Later

When reading to do a task outside the website, readers’ accomplish their goals outside of the web and after they’ve read the content that provides the prerequisite learning for the task. Some examples of such interactions include:

  • The United States Internal Revenue Service’s instructions on filling out the Form 1040[1].
  • The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)’s information about performing crosswind landings [2].
  • An article about how to do well in a job interview [3].

The figure shows the relationship between the readers’ interaction with the content and the task they hope to accomplish.

Reading to do a task outside the website later
Reading to do a task outside the website later

When authoring content for this type of interaction, the web usability goals include search-engine optimization. Term and vocabulary alignment is an important and easy way to make the content easy for the reader to discover.

Of course, providing meaningful, interesting, and helpful content is critical. In this type of interaction, understanding the nature and relationship of the content and the task are key elements towards getting meaningful feedback on how well your content is doing in those categories. Because this type of interaction consists of two, temporally-separate events–reading/leaning and doing–it might be more effective to assess them separately. For example, you could  include affordances in the content that test the intermediate goal of learning the content before the task is attempted and to consider using methods to collect and coordinate information about task completion.

Consider the case of a driver’s license test-preparation site. The site could include a quiz for the reader (and the site manager and stakeholders) to determine the readers’ learning and the content’s effectiveness in the short term. Perhaps also providing feedback to the reader on areas that require additional study. The task, passing the written driver’s license test in this example, would occur later and be measured at the Department of Licensing. The two experiences could be related somehow to evaluate the effectiveness of the test preparation site and the actual task of passing the license exam.

In this example, asking the reader about satisfaction could also be done during and after readers’ interaction with the content to understand how they feel about that, as long as the questions did not interfere with the learning task.

[1] http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf

[2] http://flighttraining.aopa.org/students/solo/skills/crosswind.html

[3] http://mashable.com/2013/01/19/guide-to-job-interview/