Eliminate the bends-whenever possible, strive to connect diagram elements with straight lines with as few bends as possible. If bends are required, complete the whole diagram, then come back in a second pass and rearrange elements to try and eliminate bends. In particular, look for elements which have many connections running to them, and make them more centric within their dependencies. If there still appears to be too many lines or bends, consider simplifying the diagram and breaking it up into separate diagrams which “drill down” on information.

Watch for hidden bends-tools like Visio make it easy to connect objects, but can also introduce tiny hidden bends in lines when elements don’t line up. These bends can show up in the diagram’s final rendering as jagged lines. In baked out formats like image files you may luck out if the bends are small enough to be interpolated as straight lines when the image is being generated. However you may not be so lucky when exporting to PDF where the output is a graphics primitive which is dynamically rendered based on the user’s zoom level.

Line things up-the human eye prefers well organized elements, so use your software package’s alignment tools to line up boxes both vertically and horizontally. This may also require that you resize elements so that their sizes match both in width and height. This is another technique for pleasing the eye and will help eliminate hidden bends.

Use consistent line lengths- if you have a diagram with 5 interconnected boxes stretching from left to right, use the same line length for each. If an element is added or removed, take the time to readjust all elements so that their connectors are once again the same lengths. This creates a balance and harmony between objects which also pleases the eye.

Drop shadows- drop shadows are basically shadows behind elements which make them appear as if they are jumping off the page. Be sure to set the light direction to the same angle for each element. Also consider adding drop shadows to lines so that they too will jump off the page. Generally very subtle drop shadows work best and will avoid introducing distraction.

Colour scheme-be sure to choose a consistent color scheme which will tie all of the elements together. Also, boxes filled with colour generally look more polished when a border is applied using a darker shade of the fill color as opposed to plain black lines. Choosing a dark gray instead of black for connectors can also help to soften, polish and unify diagrams, even if it’s only a few shades lighter than black.

Gradients-gradients are basically shape fills which blend between two or more colours to add visual interest to shapes like boxes. Generally in diagrams you should try to keep the colours used in a gradient from the same colour band with a relatively small difference in shades. When applying gradients, you may also have to revisit the shape’s border color and either eliminate the border or choose a colour with a happy medium to those used in the gradient blend.

Icons-Where possible, try to replace boxes with text in them with an icon followed by a simple description. The icon will instantly tell the story of what that element represents and the eye will be drawn to it.

The limit can be found here and reads as follows:

“15.12.3. For any unique Extended Document, you may only either (a) Deploy such Extended Document to an unlimited number of unique recipients but shall not extract information from more than five hundred (500) unique instances of such Extended Document or any hardcopy representation of such Extended Document containing filled form fields; or (b) Deploy such extended Document to no more than five hundred (500) unique recipients without limits on the number of times you may extract information from such Extended Document returned to you filled?in by such Recipients. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, obtaining additional licenses to use Acrobat Pro or Acrobat Pro Extended shall not increase the foregoing limits (that is, the foregoing limits are the aggregate total limits regardless of how many additional licenses to use Acrobat Pro or Acrobat Pro Extended you may have obtained).”

In a nutshell, this states that you can only collect data from 500 recipients of a PDF but can create an unlimited number of copies of the PDF, or alternatively, you can send the form to only 500 people, but extract data as many times as you like. Clear as mud right?

One of the primary reasons why this limit exists is an attempt by Adobe to sell more copies of Adobe Acrobat and also LiveCycle ES (an enterprise suite for hosting interactive PDFs costing thousands of dollars).

Unfortunately most people are not aware of this limit and it is extremely vague for those who are aware of it. One can only guess at its proper interpretation and if you visit 10 websites on this topic, you will get 10 different interpretations.

Some of the questions which immediately come to mind are:

-What constitutes a unique PDF? ie: if an author makes one small change to a PDF, does this result in a new “unique” PDF with it’s own “500 limit”?

-If I send a PDF to 500 individuals, and they then send a copy of the PDF to others, does this violate the second limit of having only 500 copies or does each recipient get their own 500 limit? More generally, how can one possibly have control over this? Also if recipients have their own version of Acrobat pro, does that effectively overcome the first limit since these recipients are each technically licensed to send 500 instances?

-How can Adobe ever enforce this, especially the printed copies which are counted as part of the 500 limit?

A company called Form Router has been authorised by Adobe to enable saving in Reader for an affordable fee, thus avoiding the need to purchase LiveCycle ES. However there is no mention of this service on FormRouter’s company website, other than a press statement: (http://www.formrouter.com/about/pr/12_06_05_ares.htm).

In summary, those involved with interactive PDF creation should be aware of this limit, and you should work with a lawyer if your organization is potentially in violation. If anyone has more clarification on this vague piece of legalese, we’d love to hear it!

From a day to day work point of view, keeping things simple will go along way to making your job easier and you more efficient. For starters, de-cluttering your cubicle, closing unused applications on your desktop and spending the time to organize and prioritize your tasks will instantly drop your stress level down a few notches and help to clear your mind. I’ve found that by midday I’ll usually have about 15-20 applications open, am swimming in a stack of papers, and have multiple concurrent conversations happening via phone, Skype and email. During these crazy times I stop and think what Steve Jobs would do. In most cases I just stop, close everything down and clear the desk. Then write down on the white board everything that is happening and start to process it serially. This might mean leaving email off, or putting off a task, but in the end it all gets done anyways.

For product usability, Steve was king. From the first Macs of the 1980’s to the hospital equipment he was hooked up to in the last few years of his life, Steve would look closely at the human factors of the hardware and critique them. We too should be doing the same. The fact that “usability” has only been a buzzword in recent years should be a clear indicator that we’ve been going down the wrong path in product design. Of course Steve often took this a little too far. For example, when designing a version of the iPhone, he insisted on a metal casing for a sleek design and polished feel, at the expense of introducing the infamous antenna reception problem. The lesson then is to fuse product usability with design and engineering right from the start. Apple nailed this because their departments have always worked in concert. While achieving this in other large corporations set in their ways may be difficult, efforts should be made by decision makers to bring people together from different departments throughout the entire development lifecycle.

Presentations are another area where we can all learn from Steve. Like his products, his presentations were worthy of an award. His visuals were kept simple and minimal. One look at his slides and you could instantly see what message he was about to convey. Not only that but he also let the products do the talking. Simply unveiling a new product from under a cloth cover said it all and was often enough to invoke standing ovations. While your next managerial presentation or course you teach probably won’t elicit much applause, you should also strive for simplicity to reach your audience. For more information please see our past articles: Effective Power Point Presentations and A holistic approach to PowerPoint presentations.

So next time you’re tackling an engineering problem, designing a new product or customer experience, or simply trying to bring Zen to your cubicle, think about what you can do to simplify things, and the rest will inevitably fall into place.

Begin your thought process by deciding how you can keep the imagery simple. Complex diagrams or pictures will only add to an already difficult-to-understand concept, and readers should be able to understand the picture with little explanation.

If you’re really stuck in the beginning on how to start visualizing something abstract, start with Google Images. Type in the abstract concept and see what comes up. More often then not you will find at least one website where someone else has created a diagram describing something similar. You can then use this as inspiration for creating your own visuals. If Google Images are hard to come by, don’t forget about Google Videos and YouTube. Often times, people will record their presentations, so you might find inspiration there as well.

Note: be cognizant of copyright issues. It can be tempting to snatch a bunch of images off the web and insert them into your own materials, but generally speaking everything you find on the web should be considered copyrighted. Instead, focus on using imagery from the web for inspiration and then come up with your own artistic masterpiece.

Once you have a rough idea, draw it on paper. This will allow you to quickly sketch up your concept and perhaps run it by others before investing the time to create it on a computer. This will also help you to identify if this is something you are capable of drawing or if you will need some artistic help.

Next, decide on the best software tool to use. If you are developing a diagram, check out our past article: Diagramming: Visio or Illustrator for tips on when you should use Visio, or consider a more artistic tool like Illustrator. Both tools have their pros and cons, so be aware of them before you get too far into your drawing.

If you have decided to develop a fairly complex diagram, consider breaking it down into sub diagrams and avoid an overload of labels and text. If you’re presenting using PowerPoint, you can use fading to focus on one part of the diagram: place the diagram on two slides, then place a semi-transparent box to “fade out” part of the diagram on the first slide. This will focus the audience to the remaining portion, but allow them to see the whole picture. Then on the next slide, swap the fade position so they can focus on the remaining portion of the diagram, yet still see the whole image.

In closing, remember that anything can be visualized no matter how conceptual and chances are you can take inspiration from something which exists already. Doing so however, requires some creativity and should involve feedback from others throughout the process. Always strive to make the image as obvious and as simple as you can, and try to have fun in the process.

Before deciding if a CMS is right for your project, lets start with the pros and cons:

Pros:
No editor to install: since everything is “web enabled”, this usually includes the editing interface, making CMS editing available across platforms. However as we’ll see below, web editing is a double edged sword.

Concurrent editing: multiple authors can work on the same documents/pages at the same time. In fact most CMS’s have built in version control and conflict management.

A website in a box: the CMS will give you a default website out of the box, often with features like security authentication. Customizations can usually be made in the back end (often by programmers or sys admins) as well as at the content editing level (ie: through CSS and html).

Cons:
Primitive web editing: we’ve found that all CMS’s regardless of their price tag provide terrible editing capabilities. This includes clunky and undersized text editing boxes, slow page refreshes, and browser windows that jump around the page.

Browser buttons: the loss of work through the inevitable click of the browser’s back button is very real, especially when it’s unclear if the web page is reloading.

Reliance on the network/internet: if the network or internet goes down, you can no longer work on the CMS. This is particularly bad when you are half way through an edit, and then discover a network loss when you try to save your work. Usually the work will be totally lost, so it’s recommended that authors save more frequently than in a native application. Sporadic performance of the network or CMS backend, will also lead to unpredictable usability of the authoring tools.

Single sourcing: many CMS’s don’t support the concept of single sourcing (allowing chunks of content to be edited in one spot and reused elsewhere). This forces the content authors to write the same content in multiple locations, which makes future editing very difficult and error prone.

So when should you use a CMS? Generally speaking you should choose one when creating a full blown website, especially when user interactivity is required. This will provide an end-to-end solution for storing content and rendering it to the user in some desirable way. CMS’s are also handy when there are multiple authors and it’s impractical to give them each an expenseive authoring tool.

For projects like technical documentation which don’t require user interactivity, you should instead choose a single sourcing tool which can generate web content. You can then integrate or link to that content from your CMS. This will give your authors the best performing editing tools and ensure that repetitive content need only be written once. If providing a tool to each author is impractical, consider having a gatekeeper insert the content. This will help to ensure quality content.

First and foremost, always comment in the third person and mention the writing not the author. For example, avoid comments like “You should have written it as…” or “You should find out if”. Instead, use comments like “Consider rewording to ….”.

Try to soften the voice in comments, by looking for hints as to what the author meant. For example instead of writing “Which street?”, try to figure out which subjects the author might be referring to by reading the surrounding text, and then pose the question as “Which street is this referring to? Main street or 6th street”?

Be aware of style vs correctness and be polite. In the previous example, the word “Consider” was used to suggest a better way to write something, but accepts the fact that the content may be written according to the author’s style. In cases where the writing is actually incorrect, either factually or grammatically, provide an example of the correct way to write it and explain why this is the case. In fact, when tracking a big deletion and rewrite, it’s often good to add a comment explaining why it was rewritten.

Get to the point with comments and keep them concise. Word’s commenting feature is not a social media tool and we’ve seen situations where documents go back and forth with reams of comments resembling email threads. This is always unproductive and makes the commenting difficult to follow. Instead, always seek to simplify and shrink the commenting. This process could include phone calls or face to face conversations to clear up questions or edits. More generally, resist the urge to engage in “conversational commenting”. After all, the goal is to get the document back to the point where all changes and comments have been accepted.

Always point users to the new location for content. If you move a section to another location in a document or to a completely new document, be sure to add a comment explaining where to find it, and why it was moved.

Avoid “feel good” feedback. One big difference between face-to-face feedback and commenting in Word is that the latter should focus on content edits. Thus it would be wrong (or at least weird) to add a comment saying “Good job on the edits!”. Again, it’s all about trying to keep the feedback simple. Save the feel good feedback for emails or face-to-face meetings about the document.

In summary, when commenting in Word be cognizant of the feelings of others, but keep feedback concise and as simple as possible. Always remember that the final goal is to end up with a document with all edits approved.

We take the approach that slides should be minimalistic. Every slide should be as visual as possible (ie: using pictures instead of words where possible) with as little information as is required to get the point across. Any really detailed slides should be split into multiple slides. More importantly we believe that the presenter should be one the delivering the information and the slide should simply serve as a cue card. The purpose of this approach is to capture as much of the audience’s attention as possible. If they are too busy reading slides and taking notes, then they are not taking in what the presenter has to say. If there is information you want them to take away, then this is where the course materials come in.

Course materials should capture everything that the presenter has discussed in detail, so that the audience can take this away with them. This eliminates the need for audience members to write detailed notes about your slides and what you’ve said. This allows them to focus on you but also means that the course materials must be fairly detailed. Resist the temptation to simply give the audience a hard copy of the slides with some blank lines for notes. This is not sufficient information, so focus on giving them something that is meaningful.

Despite the benefits of this approach is, it takes a strong presenter with a mastery of the subject matter to pull it off. If the presenter requires slides full of bullet points to remember what to say, then they must improve either their knowledge of the subject matter or their presentation skills. What we instil in our clients is that the presenter and slides must become one. It’s not good enough to make up a bunch of heavyweight slides with the intention that any number of people will be able to present them. Instead, our holistic approach is to develop the slides and the presenter’s content/script as one, using the slides as a cue for enabling the presenter’s expertise to shine through. The presenter must ensure mastery of both the subject and the presentation’s script. Once that is accomplished, the course notes are simply a hard copy of all that valuable information.

For more information about quality presentations see Effective PowerPoint presentations. For more information on how to improve public speaking skills, see: The benefits of Toastmasters.

-PDFs (portable document format) – PDF files are read only documents which you can think of as hard copies viewable on-screen (there are also interactive PDFs but that’s another story).

Pros: PDFs are great for printing because they are device independent and should (in theory) look correct on all devices and printers. PDFs can also be generated by a wide variety programs including Word (via a special plug-in) and the file size often compresses well.

Cons: PDFs can be difficult to search, especially when documentation is split over a library of separate PDF files. This makes it difficult for the user to know which file to look in for a specific topic and the only workaround is to do a “find in files” operation. Also, like most non-web based formats, once a PDF is out in the public, there is no version control, so a user can easily mismatch the document and product versions by accident. For more info on PDF’s see: Intro to PDF file specifications and 18 introductory facts about PDF files.

-chm/Winhelp –chm (MS compiled help) and Winhelp formats both package up all of the help content and provide additional tools like a table of contents (TOC), indexing and searching. Chm is the successor to WinHelp.

Pros: everything is bundled up in one package and is very lightweight. Chm files are standalone and can be executed on their own, although WinHelp files require Microsoft’s free Winhelp tool to display. The TOC, index and search features provide powerful tools for the user to find content easily.

Cons: both formats are showing their age and are being phased out in favour of new formats like webhelp. Both formats are Windows specific and require special authoring tools. For Winhelp, you will often have to install Microsoft’s free help compiler in addition to the authoring tool. Navigation with Winhelp is also difficult as the user cannot easily display the TOC and the content concurrently.

-Webhelp – Webhelp is our favourite format. You can think of it as an online version of a chm. It includes powerful tools like a TOC, index and searching.

Pros: The biggest advantage is that the author can control the content and ensure that it is up-to-date. Since the content only lives online, you don’t have to worry about old revisions of files floating around “out there”. The content is also device independent html (accessed using a web browser).

Cons: Requires a webserver to host. We’ve also found that if a page of help has videos, a good portion of the video content must be loaded before the page is available, thus slowing down the loading of the page. This format also requires specialized software to create it such as Help and Manual.

-Word/text files – This is content in its most purest form and is pretty self explanatory.
Pros: Everyone has a program which can save out Word or text files, so the costs of authoring tools are probably already covered in your organization. Text files can be very small and lightweight making them perfect for things like release notes or installation instructions. Word files can easily be passed between authors. Also the file itself is the output, so there is no transformation step to generate output as is the case when generating other formats.

Cons: Word files cannot be edited concurrently making them difficult to author in a team environment. We’ve also found a number of discrepancies when editing Word files on the Mac especially when using some of Word’s advanced features (though in generally it works pretty good). There are no controls for locking the content, which could be an issue for important documents like legal files.

-Keep it simple – avoid complex imagery and ensure that it is immediately recognizable. For example if you have an icon containing a hammer and a screwdriver but it looks like a blob, then it will likely just create more confusion. On a related note, keep the imagery universally recognizable if possible.

-Consistent use of light sources/shadowing – if you’re going to include drop shadows and shading to give the impression of a light source, ensure that you do this on all of the icons which make up a set and ensure that the suggested direction of the light is the same for each. If the icons will be really small or there will be really small versions, then shadowing may be best left out as there is only so much detail you can show.

-Consistent and uniform look – ensure the look and feel between icons is the same. This includes the general style, dimensions including width/height, 2D vs 3D, and overall colour scheme. This will help to unify the look and make it easy to recognize your product or brand.

-Use analogies – sometimes it can be difficult to think of an object that visually represents an idea or concept. This is where some analogies can help. For example if you have a presentation slide where you describe database tools, then an image of physical hand tools might work well to suggest what you are going to talk about on that slide. If you’re out of ideas, do a Google search of your concept and go to the images page to see if there are any pictures that will inspire you.

-Level of detail – we touched on this above in lighting, but again be aware of the size of the icon. If it’s to be a small icon, then reduce the level of detail. If you are going to use the same source art for different sized icons then your reduction in detail will affect all of the resulting icons. If this is not acceptable, then you may need to create separate source art for really small icons with low detail.

Aside from its clean cut appearance, the first thing you’ll notice in the store is that there are lots of fully functional demo computers for you to try and enough sales people to assist everyone (though they are not pushy at all). Devices are laid out on tables, almost like little work centers where you can visualize what it might be like sitting around a table with your colleagues or co-workers on your Macs, while at the same time providing you with lots of personal space.

The best aspect though, is that they have you taken care of during the entire decision making process and despite their product’s absurd price tags, they ensure that you leave feeling good about your purchase. One aspect I particularly liked was the in-store setup. As soon as you decide to purchase, the product is brought directly to you in the store and the sales person will show you how to use it and even help you do some basic setup. And for $100, you can get a migration service in which you can visit the store as many times as you like during the subscription period and they will personally assist you with all of your questions, software migrations and issues. More importantly, they’ve made the migration to their product very easy.

Service wise, they aim to have a 24 hour turn around time for those, as the sales clerk said, “can’t live without their computer”. Contrast that to your local discount store which usually has at least a week’s worth of backlog.

All of this reminded me of the good old days back in the 80’s when there was a family owned computer store on every street corner. In those days, computer stores understood that good customer experience began before the product was purchased and continued for the lifetime of the product and beyond.

So when thinking about your customers, try to think about the user experience you want to impart on them as a holistic process. Try to think about what you can do for them, before, during and after the sale. Oh and when you have a chance, make a visit to an Apple store and be inspired!