Andrea L. Ames, an IBM Senior Technical Staff Member, presented on applying progressive information disclosure to improve the user experience. Progressive disclosure is a technique that reveals information to users in a staged manner, presenting only the minimum needed for the current task. It reduces complexity and keeps users focused. The presentation discussed how progressive disclosure has traditionally been applied to online help but can also be applied to product content and interfaces. It emphasized thinking more about the user experience and writing less by focusing on essential information and deferring other content until needed. Quick steps and resources for implementing progressive disclosure were provided.

1. When Worlds Collide:
Improving the User Experience by Applying
Progressive Information Disclosure
Presented by Andrea L. Ames
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member /
Information Experience Strategist & Architect

2. About Andrea
 Technical communicator since 1983
 Areas of expertise
 Information architecture and design and interaction design for
products and interactive information
 Information and product usability—from analysis through
validation
 User-centered design and development process
 IBM Senior Technical Staff Member
 University of CA Extension certificate coordinator
and instructor
 STC Fellow, past president (2004-05), and past member
of Board of Directors (1998-2006)
 ACM Distinguished Engineer
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 2 2

3. Agenda
 Progressive disclosure (PD)
 Traditional information PD
 The new twist – applying it to the information
experience, in particular the UI
 But first, we have to think more
and write less
 Quick steps to PD
 Resources
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 3 3

4. According to Wikipedia…
progressive disclosure (PD):
 “To move complex and less frequently used options out of the main user interface
and into secondary screens“
 An interaction design technique
 Often used in human computer interaction
 Helps maintain the focus of a user's attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and
cognitive workload
 Improves usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the task at hand
 Sequences actions across several screens
 Reduces feelings of overwhelm for the user
 Reveals only the essentials and helps the user manage the complexity of feature-rich
sites or applications
 Moves from "abstract to specific" via “ramping up” the user from simple to more
complex actions
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 4

5. PD for interaction isn’t new
 Around since at least the early 1980s (Jack Carroll, IBM)
 Jakob Nielsen has been discussing it for ages
"Progressive disclosure is the best tool so far: show people
the basics first, and once they understand that, allow
them to get to the expert features. But don't show
everything all at once or you will only confuse people and
they will waste endless time messing with features that
they don't need yet".
 In information development, PD can be applied to
content, as well
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 5

6. What is progressive
information disclosure?
 In an information experience, enables you (the author) to
provide the right information in the right place at the right
time
 Assumes “competent performer” to “proficient performer”
is stage of use (backup) in which users will spend most
of their time when using the product–not novices; not
experts
 Defer display of novice information, background,
concepts, extended reference material and examples,
etc., until the user needs and requests it
 Reduces complexity by revealing only the essentials for
a current task and then reveals more as users advance
through tasks
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 6

7. What is progressive
information disclosure? (cont.)
 Reveals information in an ordered manner
 Each layer builds on the previous one in a flow that provides
progressively more information
 Provides only the details that are necessary at a given time, in a
specific context
 Provides assistance when necessary--not information created just to
cover an empty widget
 Do not repeat information; for example, do not repeat field labels in
hover text.
 “A guided journey, not a scavenger hunt"
 Designed around the ideal information experience–with no resource
or time constraints
 Implemented realistically with necessary constraints
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 7

8. A rose by any other name…
 Technical communicators have been
“doing” PD for a long time
 We might not call it PD
 The best example of traditional PD:
Well-architected, traditional, online help
 Primary “layer”: Contextual and task topics
 Secondary “layers”: prereqs, background,
related concepts and reference, etc.
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 8

9. Traditional, contextual help
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 9

10. The problem with traditional assistance and
traditional information development methods
 Typical UI-text development process:
 Written by developers of the UI
 Edited by tech pubs (best case; often copy edit capturing only capitalization and punctuation
issues and typos)
 Typical help development process:
 Writers attend (some) design meetings, keeping track of the number of UI panels in the
product, which typically include one help button per panel
 Writers develop one help topic for each UI panel in the product
 Pop-up help/hover help provided for all, or no, controls
 Task help describes how to complete the fields in the UI panel :
 Pop-up/hover help content repeated in task help
 Writers cut and paste from specs
 Typical library design and development process:
 Deliverables developed based on development expectations and history vs. user needs
 Other (non-help) deliverable content identified without regard for task help also being created
 Extensive redundancy across UI text, help, and other deliverables (like books)
 Design process accomplished within resource and time constraints, not
according to ideal or customer needs
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 10

11. The next PD
evolution/revolution
 The UI
 Get even closer to the task than the help
 Influence the design of the task and task
ecosystem
 Drive reductions in words
 Prioritize resources around client value
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 11

12. PD revolution prerequisite:
Think More, Write Less
“Think more” means… “Write less” means…
 Ensuring that the UI is as easy to
 Owning and being responsible for explain as possible by contributing
the information experience to designing interaction the right
way the first time
 Not making our users think about  Starting from the user’s immediate
how to use the product task context and working your way
 Not falling back on old paradigms: out to more general information—
make “looking for” the answer a
 One help topic per UI screen last resort (because it is)
 How many books are we going to  Not forcing users to read more
write? than they have to
 Not letting the developers think for  Prioritizing what you cover and
you where—for example, using
scenarios
 Being assertive – making sure  Not just “papering the product”
you’re involved throughout the with traditional documentation
design process
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 12

13. Why do we need to change?
 Traditional deliverables, developed by traditional methods, are not working:
 Reference that “papers the product”
 Generalized user-guide info
 “Type your name in the Name field” help
 Most documentation focuses on functional information, not domain information, or the
mapping from domain to product function—written from the inside out
 Much of that information covers the large number of tasks users need to do – such as
installing, migrating, etc. – that are not business goals
 Online libraries stuffed with everything we produce
 Documentation is often compensation for unusable products—a finger in an
eroding dam of bad product design
 Customers and users don’t read documentation—reading documentation is
never a business goal 
 Information is difficult to find and often does not address the user’s issue
 Customers do not perceive information as separate from product
 Customers look more and more to forums, knowledge bases, and other
social sources of info vs. product doc
 Can you afford not to change—do you have the resource to continue
building and maintaining content that customers don’t need or use?
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 13

14. How can we think more
and write less?
 Prioritize using deep understanding of users
(scenarios, use cases, etc.)
 Sometimes this means not writing something
 Most often, it means covering it in an unfamiliar
way (to the team, customers, and even you)
 Design deliverables to support users’ efficient and
effective use of information in the context of their
tasks (embedded assistance, contextual
information, examples, samples, concrete
information, take cues from community-written
info)
 Own your portion of the responsibility for the
usability of the product—the information
experience begins in the product
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 14

15. How can we think more and
write less? (cont.)
 If the design discussion around an aspect of the product seems
complicated or difficult to you, it probably is—this is where your
customers most need you!
 In the design discussion, raise the issue with the dev team, contribute ideas for
improving the design.
 Look for gaps in user-goal and user-task flows: between UI panels, between
tasks, between different UIs (admin versus end user client, e.g.), between
products.
 Ask questions about what you don’t know (they are probably the same as user’s
questions).
 If you can’t get product changes, or get them right away, find ways to improve the
user experience without adding topics… embedded information, “show me”
demo, or tutorial.
 Start with the user and provide the right information within the UI’s
task flow (embedded assistance).
 Determine what’s highest-value for your users—examples, samples,
tasks, tutorials—and focus on those; don’t try to cover every part of
the product with every kind of info and deliverable.
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 15

16. How can we think more and
write less? (cont.)
 Document the UI in the UI
 Don’t rewrite what’s in the UI in hover help and help pane
 Don’t include unnecessary hover help and help-pane content
 When considering additional documentation
 Focus on user tasks—not UI tasks—and then on supporting reference and conceptual
information
 Focus concepts on the user’s task domain, not the tool
 Don’t duplicate UI help and hover-help content in other deliverables
 When testing information, take user input into consideration, but don’t just
do whatever they say
 Understand the root causes of their concerns
 Design the right solution for the issue at hand and validate it
 Typically, users don’t know what the root cause is; they only know how to articulate
what they like and don’t like; base design decisions on observable performance, if
possible
 What we do requires thinking! There is no cookbook or recipe for
implementing it!
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 16

17. Now what?
1. Start with the product: is it as obvious and self-evident
as possible
2. Consider your users’ stages of use (backup)
3. Consider the types of content you need to provide
 Control assistance
 Panel assistance
4. And the types of mechanisms
available
 Persistent UI text that doesn’t require
a user gesture
 Simple UI gestures your users will tolerate
5. Can you improve “help?”
6. How are you supporting use of the
product with non-UI, task-oriented deliverables?
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 17

18. Resources
Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox
Demystifying Usability blog
Time-Tripper UI patterns
InteractionDesign.org
This presentation on slidshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/aames/20111114-a-ames-
worlds-collideimproveuxthrupid
STC proceedings paper on stages of use (backup):
http://www.stc.org/images/proceedings/Documents/enabl
ingprogressivei1.htm
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 18 18

19. Questions?
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 19 19

20. Contacting/following/connecting
with Andrea
E-mail: aames@pobox.com
Twitter: @aames, @TMWLala, @strategicIA
Facebook: www.facebook.com/alames,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Strategic-IA/313151912099313
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaames
Blog: thinkmorewriteless.wordpress.com/
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 20 20

21. Backup
Stages of Use

22. “Stages of use” in designing and writing
embedded assistance layers of PD
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 22

23. “Stages of use” in designing and writing
embedded assistance layers of PD , cont.
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 23

24. Cautionary note about stages of use in
EA design
 Stages of use apply to multiple user dimensions; for example:
 Domain knowledge
 Computer use
 Your tool
 Tools like your tool
 A user who is a novice in your tool and tools like your tool might be an
expert in the domain and the use of computers in general.
 The same user might be an expert with most parts of your UI and a novice
in some, or might be an expert in some parts of a task flow and a novice in
others.
 You must consider the many dimensions of your users before arbitrarily
applying a single “stage of use” label to them
 Consider the appropriate information for the point in time for which you are
designing: does the user need tool information, domain information, or
both?
 Thankfully, progressive disclosure enables you to support multiple levels of
users throughout their use of the various parts of the product and through
their growth in domain and tool knowledge and experience
(c) Andrea L. Ames, 2006-2011 24