"Adobe Day" presenter, John Daigle, covers many statistics on how drastically the mobile landscape has changed in the past 18 months. Smart phone and mobile devices aren't the only focal point for delivering content; home theatre systems, a variety of tables and desktop browsers also have their own design issues. Daigle's slide presentation contains dozens of useful links to references ranging from books to websites that will test or grade how well your content works with certain browsers.

1. Enjoying a smooth ride on the
Mobile Documentation Highway
Presented by John Daigle
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2. 20131993
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Before we start – Tip of the hat to Joe Welinske of WritersUA for publishing
the new “must read”: “Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps”
www.welinske.com

3. Shifts and Trends in the use of Mobile Devices
• Organizations who are early adopters
• The Mobile Device Landscape
• User Assistance vs. Reference Documentation
• Writing Content for a Mobile Audience
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4. Shifts and Trends in the use of Mobile Devices
• Designs where the Content “Flows” to fit the
screen
• Tools and Techniques for the tech writer
• Mobile’s opportunity for Technical
Communicators
• Resources and links 4

5. The Screen Size Wars
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iMac, iPad, iPhone
iPad Mini
Samsung Galaxy Series of Android Devices

6. Amazon’s Kindle Family
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Example of Kindle impact: Iconlogic’s Adobe Captivate and RoboHelp Course Workbooks

8. Windows Surface and Windows Phone
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“Late Bloomer” Windows is making significant new mobile inroads in a
field dominated by iOS and Android

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10. Voice Activation Commands with Ford Sync and Lexus Consoles
(Instead of “Click, Select or Tap” we have “Say or Speak”)
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Ultimate mobile – Google Glass

12. February 2013 Mobile Trends
• 1 billion smartphones globally
• 150 million Tablets
• 1 million apps available
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18. Gartner Predicts by 2017, Half of Employers will Require
Employees to Supply Their Own Device for Work Purposes
(Instead of buying and “locking down” devices)
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19. By the end of 2020:
10 billion mobile internet devices in use
(up from two billion in 2011.)
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Employers use of iPads and impact
on Technical Communicators

20. I don’t walk around with a briefcase anymore. I just carry my iPad.
• You turn it on. It’s on.
• Lay flat attributes eliminates a barrier with the client
• The Zagg keyboard makes data entry easier
• Documents like regulations are easy to read and look up
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21. Tablets and Smartphones in
industry and on the Shop Floor
Product Lifecycle Management
Access to product knowledge
anywhere, anytime
Manufacturing plans, simulations
and work instructions
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22. Mobile Documentation: When the iPad is a Clinician’s Best Friend
Mobile Medical App Market growing 25% per year over next 5 years
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23. HEP iChart mobile app
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Example of tech writers using “progressive disclosure” on a small screen

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Medical Students find documentation portable because the iPad Mini fits
the lab coat pocket conveniently

25. Biggest shock is
Screen Real Estate and Portrait vs Landscape orientation
Touch Gestures (Tap, pinch, swipe, etc.)
• User Assistance - Application Help
• Quick Starts
• Tutorials
• Embedded Design with developer
• Knowledge Bases
• Policies and Procedures
• Field repair instructions
• Sales and Marketing resources
• Training and eLearning
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“Killing time is the killer app of mobile.
When in doubt, leave it out.”
- Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox
Documentation Writing for Mobile Readers

26. Techniques for Mobile Documentation
• Flatten Navigation
• Provide easy way Home, Previous, Next
• Context Sensitive Topics for Mobile Apps (use APIs)
• Consider whether you need a TOC at all for a Native App
• Simplify Search
• Use Progressive Disclosure so that user is in control of screen real
estate
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27. Letting Go of the Words, 2nd Edition
By Janice Redish
September 2012
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Writing economically for a mobile audience

28. Use the following examples of “Progressive
Disclosure”
“Minimize the extent to which the system and the
information get in the way of what the user’s really
interested in.”
“Herbert Simon says we have an abundance of
information but we have a poverty of attention.”
“David Farkas contributed to minimalism in the
book, Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel which had to do
with layered designs.”
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Southwest Airlines
Web Home Page Smartphone Home Page

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Tech writers can use wireframing tools to better
communicate with Native App developers

33. Responsive Web Design
A site designed with RWD adapts the layout to the viewing environment by using
fluid, proportion-based grids, flexible images, and CSS3 media queries, an
extension of the @media rule.
• Fluid grid concept calls for page element sizing to be in relative units like
percentages, rather than absolute units like pixels or points.
• Flexible images are also sized in relative units, so as to prevent them from
displaying outside their containing element.
• Media queries allow the page to use different CSS style rules based on
characteristics of the device the site is being displayed on, most commonly the
width of the browser.
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34. But, nothing is without controversy
• Responsive Design (11 Reasons Why Responsive Design
Isn’t that Cool)
• Viewing a responsive website on a mobile device forces the
CPU and memory of it while resizing images because you
are downloading a large image, uncompressing it in your
phone’s memory and then resizing it to fit a small screen.
• Adaptive Content
• Goodbye Graceful Degradation (New to old). Hello
Progressive Enhancement (lowest common demoninator
and build enhancements up)
• In the future responsive design will become progressive
enhancement: design the mobile site first, and add stuff for
desktop and tablet.
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35. http://html5test.com/
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37. Authoring tool developers such as Adobe are addressing adaptive issues.
Adobe RoboHelp 10’s MultiScreen HTML5 Single Source Layouts can help authors
generate adaptive HTML5 output that adjusts to multiple screen sizes.
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38. Preview and inspect your web designs on mobile devices. With Edge
Inspect, work more efficiently using synchronous browsing and
remote inspection, and grab screenshots from all connected devices
with a single button click.
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39. • Place QR codes on equipment
• Employee scans QR and goes
directly to documentation
Creative ways to solve problems
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40. More resource links at
www.showmethedemo.com
john@johndaigle.com
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