Re: [user-assistance-discuss] Thoughts on Graphical Callouts

[marbux <marbux@gmail.com>]

On 5/8/06, Paul Prescod <paul.prescod@xmetal.com> wrote:
>
> Question: how important is the callout style in effective communication?
>
Does a publishing system that supports only a subset of these (e.g. only
> marks) still meet the needs of authors? Which styles are most
> appropriate for documenting software?


In a Help system, dependency on visual effects to impart information ignores
the needs of end users with visual disabilities. Beyond the ethics of
denying disabled persons access to needed information, such dependencies can
lead to ineligibility of vendors' products under government procurement
standards -- e.g., the recent Massachusetts Executive Branch decision to
delay implementation of the OpenDocument file format standard until
accessibility issues are resolved --  and also lead to employer liability
for violation of civil rights, e.g., under the Americans with Disabilities
Act. The long-term legal trend has been expansion of rights for those with
disabilities and that trend is expected by all observers to continue for the
foreseeable future.

Software documentation should always be complete and handicapped-accessible
without dependence on visual effects, suggesting that a Help authoring
system optimally should be designed to make it difficult for Help authors to
depart from that principle, rather than squandering Help system development
resources on enabling such departures.

This does not mean that high quality typography should not be employed for
the masses who depend on vision for acquisition of information, but a
workable rule of thumb might be that a Help system should be confined purely
to information that can be expressed in W3C VoiceXML, the foundation
standard for handicapped accessibility tools.  See <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voicexml> for key hyperlinks.

Graphic images if used at all should be confined to an ornamental -- as
opposed to informational -- role. But because of the difficulties in
discouraging Help authors' informational use of graphic images in Help
content if such capabilities are possible, Help authoring systems should
block the use of graphic images until such issues can be resolved (assuming
that they can).

To a blind person, a picture is worth far less than a thousand words. An
OASIS standard for Help systems should *not* undermine VoiceXML adoption.

There are closely-related issues with sound dependencies in Help systems.
Text-only is the way forward.

--Marbux


Definitions
> ===========
>
> Annotated Graphic: the combination of
>         1. an underlying graphic
>         2. a graphical annotation overlay
>         3. callouts (usually text)
>
> Underlying graphic: something visual to be annotated. Examples include a
> map, a diagram or a photograph.
>
> Graphical annotation overlay: a definition of
>         1. annotated areas
>         2. visual annotation relators
> Note that the annotated graphic and the graphical annotation layer may
> be combined into a single file (especially with standard vector graphics
> formats like CGM, EPS or SVG)
>
> Annotated areas: Regions (or points) of the graphic that are associated
> with callouts.
>
> Visual annotation relators: Geometric objects like lines, boxes, circles
> and perhaps numbers which visually relate each annotated area with some
> annotation. For example a relator might be a line drawn from a box
> surrounding an area of a picture to a box containing text describing the
> area. Relators might be automatically generated by software. This is
> easy if the relator is just a mark at a point. It is harder if it is
> (e.g.) a line with an associated box.
>
> Callouts: text and other content describing the significance of a
> particular region of a graphic. Note: the callouts and the annotated
> graphic may be combined in a single file. Alternately, the callouts and
> the surrounding text file may reside in a single file.
>
> Potential Files and Formats
> ===========================
>
> The Underlying graphic might be in a bitmap format like TIFF.
>
> The Graphical Overlay might be in a vector-ish format.
>
> Each translated version of the Annotated Graphic might be in an XML
> format.
>
> A document would embed the translated versions.
>
> So there are up to four files and up to four file formats. But in any
> particular situation, multiple files or formats could be merged. For
> example, a binary FrameMaker file can embed all four layers (at a cost
> of flexibility and maintainability).
>
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