How Much CO2 Is Saved Through Videoconferencing?

The answer is a lot! Check out the experience of one company in the article below.

clipped from www.pcmag.com North Carolina-based Global Knowledge Training for instance has already estimated a 4.4 million Lb reduction in CO2 each month by choosing web conferencing.

Usability ROI Declining, but Still Strong

The article below indicates that usability study ROI is declining, but still strong. I think the article neglects some of the decreases in cost of usability due to products such as Techsmith's Camtasia Studio and the more expensive Morae. These products are used to conduct remote usability studies using Web conferencing. These products make very inexpensive do-it-yourself studies possible even for small companies.

If you want to know how to do usability on the cheap, contact me. See my profile for contact information. --David

clipped from www.usernomics.com The average business metrics improvement after a usability redesign is now 83%. Six years ago, we conducted a survey of design projects and found that, after redesigning for usability, the average improvement in key performance indicators (KPI) was 135%. cost has remained approximately constant, as the benefits have decreased. Typical business metrics include: * Conversion rates, such as sales or lead generation * Traffic numbers, such as page view statistics * User performance, such as the time needed to perform key tasks * Target feature usage, such as the number of users who click a link to crucial information

Principles of Adult Learning

We all have our first exposure to learning in classes designed for children and adolescents. When we are asked as adults in business or academic settings to teach other adults, we may try to apply the only paradigm we know--the one we learned in school when we were often the unknowing and unwilling.

Teaching adults is qualitatively different. The article cited below contains a good summary of adult learning principles and practices. I have only included the topic titles.

clipped from honolulu.hawaii.edu By Stephen Lieb from VISION, Fall 1991 Part of being an effective instructor involves understanding how adults learn best. Compared to children and teens, adults have special needs and requirements as learners. Despite the apparent truth, adult learning is a relatively new area of study. The field of adult learning was pioneered by Malcom Knowles. He identified the following characteristics of adult learners: Adults are autonomous and self-directed. Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge Adults are goal-oriented. Adults are relevancy-oriented. Adults are practical, focusing on the aspects of a lesson most useful to them in their work. As do all learners, adults need to be shown respect. Motivating the Adult Learner Barriers and Motivation Learning Tips for Effective Instructors

UI Design Strategy: The Gestalt Principle

Here are some principles for "doing it right the first time": in user interface design. Doing it right the first time can be 10 to 100 times more productive than inspecting and fixing errors. --David

clipped from www.usernomics.com Patterns in UI design ... "Measuring usability, identifying usage problems, making improvements. All very interesting, but it's a 'correctional' activity at best. The true improvements in usability are made in the design phase. But how do you design a usable interface? The central notion behind Gestalt theory is the idea (or assumption, as some would have it) that we tend to order our experience in a manner that is regular, orderly, symmetric, and simple. Simply put: we are looking for patterns. This is reflected in a number of laws that should help in assuring a UI layout in which controls or function that 'belong together'

Microsoft (R) Word Template Tips

Here are a few things I've seen done that make Microsoft Word templates very helpful--especially for longer documents like user manuals, participant guides, instructor guides, and policy and procedures guides.

• Create a true .dot template instead of just copying over an old .doc document. Then, each time you start a new document, use File/New and specify this .dot file as the template. If you just copy over old documents, each customization that people make to the attached template gets accumulated into each new copy that is made. By applying a new .dot template each time using File/New, accumulation doesn't occur.
• Have a style for all common elements like titles, headings, bullets (at least three levels), numbering (at least three levels), notes, warnings, and other special formatting that recurs.
• Do NOT use Word bullets and numbering (in icons or right-click menus), or any manual formatting . Instead, use styles for numbers and bullets. Word bullets and numbering is notoriously inconsistent.
• In the template styles, indicate spacing above and below each style, indicate indentation and indicate what style follows each style. Doing this will eliminate the need to use carriage returns for spacing, will speed up input and improve document consistency.
• Have a programmer create keyboard macros for applying common styles like Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. This way, the author can press something like CTRL-ALT-1 and Word applies the style where the cursor is and places the cursor in the correct spot to start typing.
• Have a programmer create a wizard for setting up shell documents. The author could answer a few questions about preferences, add chapter names, and press Go. The wizard would then set up shell documents that include page setup, graphic elements like lines, headers and footers, TOC, and index. AutoText containing different sizes and formatting of tables can also be added by the wizard. A wizard can set up one file for each chapter or one file for all chapters. The TOC can reflect one file or many files (chapters) by using RD fields.
• Use Styleref fields in the headers or footers for Chapter and Title references. This way when you add or delete chapters or change the title, you can update all the fields at once to reflect the new info. You update with Edit/Select All and F9 or SHIFT-F10.
• Some templates have their own toolbars to do various formatting. A programmer or technical writer can set this up.
• When implementing a new template, require that anyone who uses it must first be trained. (Every template has little idiosyncrasies and optimal application tips.)
• Document how the template works, with application tips and examples.

David Orr

Testing Usability with Multiple Users

Sometimes companies need usability tests with multiple users and need them FAST. This article has some strategies for handling such situations.

Multiple-User Simultaneous Testing: MUST
Usability testing with large numbers of users ..."Testing 5-10 users at once lets you conduct large-scale usability testing and still meet your deadlines. Sometimes you need to test a large number of users. One option, of course, is to apply the standard user-testing methodology, and just do more of it. Keep testing until you're blue in the face. Unfortunately, this often gets you into serious trouble with project deadlines.>>>More... http://www.usernomics.com/news/2007/10/multiple-user-simultaneous-testing-must.html

Nash Equilibrium in Employee/Employee Relations

Did you see the movie A Beautiful Mind? I think the Nash equilibrium (governing dynamics) shown in the bar scene, with the guys trying to get girls, applies in the relationship between employers and employees--i.e., if employers make decisions that balance what is best for the company and what is best for the employees, the result is optimal for both. Same thing goes for employees; however, I think the employer must initiate the process to develop the trust needed for employees to do the same. Why the employer? Because the power balance favors the employer; thus the employer is the only one who can eliminate fear by being just.

Of course, all this is a way to restate the Golden Rule and "Love thy neighbor as thyself" in a mathematical way.

David Orr

"Lean" Training Development

Formal instructional design processes, like the standard ADDIE system (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate), have long been responsible for creating expensive training. In a manner similar to the movement away from cumbersome, linear, waterfall software development systems to more "lean," iterative methods, instructional design is moving to lean methods also.

Elsewhere in this blog I outlined a FAST development methodology for training, which you may want to check out. http://tipsbuscom.blogspot.com/2007/03/fast-training-development.html.

Sivasailam Thiagarajan, also known as "Thiagi," has been one of the more creative forces in instructional design for years. He has addressed lean approaches to instructional design in his article "Rapid Instructional Design" http://www.thiagi.com/article-rid.html. Here is a wealth of tips and techniques that every instructional designer or manager seeking faster training development ought to read.

David Orr