Using Comics in Technical Documentation

This article of mine got published on the STC Usability Newsletter for October 2007 edition. Please follow the link http://www.stcsig.org/usability/temp_newsletter/0710-Comics.htm

I am also putting it below for an easy referral:

Using Comics in Technical Documentation

By Rajeep Gupta, India Chapter

Introduction

Over the years, I have wondered how end-users view our technical documentation, and have sought ways to make documentation livelier and more engaging. This article is based on the research and feedback I received from a number of user experience designers, usability specialists, product developers and writers, which led me to engage in a dialogue with the users.

How it started

I read an article by Rebecca Sedaca, and titled "Comics - Not Just For Laughs" (http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/comics-not-just-for). The article described how she engaged readers by using comics to communicate concepts and encourage ecommerce. Her ultimate objective was to use comics as a communication medium where complex thoughts are broken down into a simpler communication style, and targeted at various audiences. I came away with the thought that a medium like comics could help us simplify the communication of complex technical topics, and engage the user at time with a 'fun' factor.

Why I liked this approach

Many people believe that technical documentation cannot possibly be made interesting, let alone fun. Most printed technical documentation sits on shelves, often untouched for months or years at a time, and only read when the need arises. Perhaps a new method of communication could make documentation more interesting. I decided to try my hand at this technique. I first considered a chat messenger, and decided to come up with some help files.

Which are the various technical documents deliverables to have comics

I think comics could be handy when you are delivering a safety manual for pilots or passengers. Instead of capturing information points by points in a text, use comics to display the information. In addition, in cases wherein you are writing a manual for a mechanical product, we can use the comics to display the complexities. A user guide or an online help can have comics embedded in it.

Why is it a bad thought?

If you believe the premise that comics can increase the use and usability of technical documentation, it is important to note that there are limits to their usefulness, which may include:

Comics and cartoon actions and characters can be interpreted in different ways. What may seem creative to the writer could be offensive or upsetting to the reader.
A lot of thought must be put into every aspect of the comic. For example, the way the character looks and dialogue will be viewed differently by different readers. You must make an effort to ensure all types of readers will come away with the message you intend.

It is easier and less expensive to fix problems with text than with cartoons, which are drawn graphics.

Children are much more comfortable with comics than adults. Adults are typically engaged only by clever or witty comics. In trying to make the comics appealing, you do not want to sacrifice informational content. Even if you develop an informative cartoon, an adult reader may find it distracting or intrusive, rather than informative.

When viewed for the second or third time, a comic may lose its charm. If a user wants to refer to the technical document again, the comic may be less engaging than when initially seen.

Printing costs may increase if you use color in your comics, or if they add significantly to page count.

Translation of graphics costs more than text translation, and accommodating cultural differences may require redrawing of a comic.

Suggestions

I spoke to a few professionals and here's what they suggested:

Analyze the interaction between the audience, the content, and the drawing. Because a cartoon may trivialize the material, you must assess whether and where comics can contribute to the documentation at hand. This could be accomplished when the technical writers perform a documentation analysis before they begin writing the first draft.

The panel structure of comic art is a nice way to show a sequence of actions, because the time concept is built into the design pattern. Using a non-realistic style also allows the artist/writer to over-emphasize critical details or adjust the "view" to make small details easier to see.

Comics might also be an effective way to engage readers who might not typically turn to a book for instruction. An example could be cited of the United States Army using "comic books" for manuals for heavy equipment, and as well as ease of communicating "service bulletins" to the mechanics in the maintenance departments.

As with so many aspects of user experience, the critical factor here is to understand the users and their context of use, and to make design decisions to enhance usability (for the appropriate people, in their context, to meet their goals).

An in-depth understanding of the culture must be mapped to the technical documentation effort on an ongoing basis. This is one of the critical factors in ensuring successful use of comics.

Anything that reduces cognitive overhead in communication is welcome. Whatever the medium, usability testing on the deliverables is recommended.

Conclusion

I am developing help files that use comics as an interactive medium. When finished, I will forward it to my colleagues for their feedback. Using comics as an enhancement to technical documentation is worth considering. The more experience people have with this technique, the better they will understand how and where comics can best be used.

9th STC ANNUAL CONFERENCE@ GOA

The air around CIDADE DE GOA at Dona Paula was bearing a sense of expectation from Thursday (October 25, 2007)to Saturday (October 27, 2007). There were excellent reasons. For the next 3 days, CIDADE witnessed congregation of technical writers, editors, managers, instructional designers, web designers, and usability engineers etc to celebrate the 9th STC Annual Conference.

Laced with colorful scenic beauty of beaches and palms, GOA witnessed various knowledge sharing session ranging from Blogging to Heuristic Evaluation, to from Web 2.0 to Managers forum. It had something for each one, and in the end it aptly testified that STC India has managed to bring another event to a resounding success.


The pre-conference workshop was the starting of the gala event which lasted for three days. Francis Anthony (Synopsis) was the EMCEE for the event who infused a sense of charm in the sessions. The inauguration took place at 6 PM with the five STC representatives lighting the diya.

26th October 2007:
As time was limited and multiple presentations were to be delivered, so the organizers had to conduct multiple sessions simultaneously, hence it was left to the delegates to choose and attend the relevant sessions. Brian Keefe (EMC) started with the session on getting ready for the next wave in which he spoke about the induct ion of new trends and technologies in technical writing.

Next, Francisco Abedarabo (Oracle) who enthralled the audience with his wit and humor. The interesting part was the way in which he used the presentation as an aid. He provided certain tips on the American manager’s perspective on Indian writers wherein they mentioned improvement on writing & communication, language skills, a neutral writing style, flexibility; Francisco also advised the Indian writers to follow global processes and learn project management skills.

Suman Kumar (DELL) presented a session on 'If you agree, click "No!", and Ravi Kumar (SUN) on Demystifying Localization. It couldn't get much better as the next item was a debate on whether 'Technical Writers are overpaid or not?' It was pretty interesting to hear as Sameer Chabra, Vasudha Singh, Rachna Ganguli and Udhay Chava infused the audience with their pointers though majority voiced of same opinion- technical writers are NOT being overpaid. Gururaj BS moderated the debate.




After a delicious lunch, the participants were ready for some more interesting sessions. Rachna Ganguli and Shilpa Sharma from Cadence provided us with a session on 'Test Plans been a source of documentation quality'. They thought that a lot of information could be used by writers as an aid for their documentation. Couple of sessions were running at the same time- Shripad and Peter Fernandez (SUN) spoke on collaborative content, while Denise Kiser (Vmware) spoke on the necesarry qualification for a technical publications manager

All through out the conference there were constant interaction amongst the speakers and participants were constantly networking themselves. It got more interactive as Vivek Jain of Adobe presented the session on Adobe Technical Communication Suite. It was a pretty engaging session in which Vivek highlighted the capabilities and features of Adobe suite.

A break was taken for 15 minutes after which the much awaited panel discussion on technical writing in India. Fred Menezes presided over the session and the panel discussion included managers from different companies and discussed on Technical Communication- past, present and the future.



Edwin Skau (Juniper Networks) conducted the prelims quiz. It kept the participants engaged and was pretty interesting to find the enthusiasm amongst the people. Next, the stage set up for a river-cruise. In the arch lights of Panjim city, Goa was a beauty to be viewed and writers showed that they could match the best of the professionals when it came to dance.

27th October, 2007:
The final day of the conference begun with Manmohan and Jayalakshmi of CA putting together an interesting perspective on the global collaborative technical publications organization. Next, Makarand Pandit (Technowrites) set the stage on fire with his presentation on the business management lessons. Mak shared some simple, yet hard to find realities of our work world in "The business management lessons I learnt from my gardening hobby."

Mak used his garden theology to put forward his management perspectives with suggestions just as a plant requires food and water for survival and to turn itself into full-grown tree, similarly experienced professionals need to tap in the budding youngsters or juniors to make them grow as excellent individuals and workers.

Infosys had a pretty interesting presentation lined up with Amit Bhatia delivering a presentation on Usability Evaluation of Help. Most of them had a query on whether Heuristic Evaluation was same as Usability Testing. Amit showed excellent skills in responding the queries. Suraj Jayan (HP) took a session on Tools for Technical Writing 2.0.

Post tea break, Jyothi Jandhyala (BEA) presented a session on DITA migration process. Nandini Gupta (Cadence)provided insights on how to create readers by a question and answer format. While Surag Ramachandran (Honeywell) spoke on E- Learning through Gaming' and Gyaneshwar Talwar (Persistent) on 'Using FrameMaker to develop Help and PDF with a click'.

Following the presentations, Edwin Skau conducted the quiz finals. The team comprising of Gururaj BS, Jyothi and Anuradha came as winners while the team from Huawei were the runners.

Following up with a delicious lunch, the participants were treated with some more presentations- Technical Documentation in Blogging by Dr.Manjula Kandula (Sun), Sankara Rajanala (CISCO) on Technical Editiors Job. Titas Negi and Sumita Mukherjee (Symantec) provided insights into Rubicon-an XQuery based framework for intelligent help systems.

The session concluded with a vote of thanks by Fred Menezes.

Amidst all this knowledge sharing, the conference was a hub for various companies to set up their respective stalls not only to share their company awareness but also to solicit feedback from the delegates. In addition, there were contests organized and hordes of prizes given. The 9th STC regional conference at Goa proved to be a showcase of knowledge sharing and diversifying technical communication knowledge to all the quarters.