Job Aid: First Draft

So, in exactly 1 week, I will be driving to Florida to take our kids to Disney World for the first time! Woo-hoo. So in preparation, I am trying to get ahead in my work to make up for being offline for the week of Spring Break.

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Audience: The audience of my job aid is Brother SE-400 sewing machine owners. (Really any embroidery machine could use it, however, since my examples show a Brother SE-400, that is my primary audience.) I have designed the aid with the assumption that the users already have a prerequisite understanding of the basics of operating the machine, including how to turn it on, how to thread it properly, how to change the foot, etc. and that they are already familiar with basic sewing terms such as embroidery and applique. It is also assumed that the user has access to the Operation Manual that comes with the machine (has extensive user explanations with images) and the Instructional DVD, which they can refer to for questions on basic machine operation.

The user would be referring to the job aid because none of the instructional materials that come with the machine specifically refer to pre-designed applique projects (commonly referred to as in-the-hoop designs, because all of the sewing is contained within the dimensions of the embroidery hoop) and the websites that sell the in-the-hoop designs (.pes files) do not have clear explanations for how to execute the design files. (I, myself, am an experienced sewer, but it took me a few trial and error times to master the order of operations for the in-the-hoop designs because of lack of instruction available.) Furthermore, the users are not likely to use in-the-hoop files frequently, so the job aid serves as a performance support tool to support users on the infrequent occasions that the users need to use the files.

Design Decisions: It is image heavy with few words because most users can just figure it out with some images, and frankly do not want to waste time watching videos or reading lots of text. The text really just acts as a support to the images.

I've used a neutral beige color as the background because the images are very busy and all the colors I tried out just made the image seem to busy. I initially tried using yellow/gold or aqua/blue for the title and background bars, since they are present in the pictures, however they looked off balanced and out of place. So I tried using a contrasting redish color, and it seems to work... So we have a representation of all the primary colors (yellow, blue, and red) with a lot of black and white against a neutral beige background.

For each of the pictures, I've photoshopped them so that the background is in black & white and blurry, so that only the portion being focused on for instruction is in focus and colorful. (I did try removing the background completely, but it just looked odd. The images look better in a rectangular standard size.)

I've also used black lines to breaks-up major sections and a slightly darker beige color for dividing the sub-steps in the section where there are a lot of pictures with similar content. Without those lines, all the pictures looked too similar and too close together, making it difficult for a learner to follow the order. The beige lines create a nice linear flow among the pictures.

I can't honestly say I chose the text for any particular reason. I wanted a title-y looking font for the titles (this is Trajan Pro which is an all caps font, making it look title-y) and a very simple font for the other content (this is Century Gothic, which is very crisp, clean, and simple to read).

IST Conference - Keynote Speaker

I will be live blogging the IST Conference today, so for those of you who couldn't make it, but are interested in what you missed... please feel free to follow along!

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Allison Rossett

Topic: "Mobile Learning and Performance"
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Our biggest challenges as designers is deciding: What do we teach and what do we aid? 

This is the dilemma of Learning vs. Performance Support.

Learning is I get it. I know. I remember.

Performance support is I found it. This is just what i need! (<--- Job Aids!)

What do we ask them to remember/memorize and what do we provide performance support for?

Dr. Rossett says WE DON'T HAVE TO CHOOSE!

Good design will help people do what they have to do! Period.

Sometimes training will be heavy on learning and support on demand. Example is a pilot, who would have lots of training, but performance support via mobile devices would help them remember the daily checklists that they do so often they might sometimes skip a step.

An example of reliant on support and lighter on learning: a tree surgeon who found a stranded finch on the ground used his mobile device to help the finch fly.

What guidelines should we follow when creating mobile learning:

1. Make it insanely useful

Example: Fooducate Scan a barcode, get immediate feedback (letter grade for health factor), and then it provides healthier alternatives. BUT it only works if you USE it! Dr. Rossett gave an example of a friend who installed it but never really used it until her doctor told her that her cholesterol was high.

2. Not your Grandma's Performance Report

Planners: Planners are in our lives just before and just after the task. Like a laminated packing checklist that Dr. Rossett uses every time she packs for a trip.

Sidekicks: Are there with us in the midst of it all. The example that she gave are the ingredient card reminders that fast food joints use to remind the employees the order and amount of the ingredients you use when making a Whopper.

3. Avoid the hammer

Don't create a mobile device just to have a mobile device. Identify your learning objectives and then create a mobile device that supports your learning and/or performance support of your objectives. Also...go where the errors are!

"we need to think more about performance, to see things from the users' perspectives"

4. Place Performance Support in the blend

No intervention, in it of itself, can get it done alone. We can't do training alone. We have to provide the performance support.

Think about the IST classes...they are great, but class isn't where all the learning takes place. It's the classes plus. Plus. Plus. PLUS!

She gave an example about taking a face to face class on wine, but the info was too dense and it didn't stick. Then she did an online module, but it didn't give her the info she wanted, so she didn't finish it. But she found a wine app that she liked: Hello Vino, that met her needs (which was not how wine was made, or any of that nonsense, she just wanted to be better at selecting the right wines to serve at her dinners).

5. Change!

Use what we know about change to bring mobile and results to the organization.

Note to self look up: Roger's Technology Diffusion Model.