Techno-babbling
Arguably the most successful producers of technically-oriented video on the web today, The Common Craft Show is known for their paper-based explanations of emerging technology. They have successfully produced a host of videos in which new technologies are presented devoid of complicated computer terminology and replaced with easy to understand descriptions.
In a post in his blog today (”Discovering the RSS Explanation Problem“), Common Craft founder Lee Lefever discusses the epiphany that started it all and lead him to their initial foray, “RSS in Plain English“:
“I was at a small conference on Silicon Valley in early 2004. There was a CEO of a start up there and during his talk, he mentioned RSS. Someone raised their hand and asked the question “What is RSS?”
“This CEO’s responses to the question, and I’m not kidding, was “RSS is an XML-based content syndication format.” As you might expect, this was met with a look of bewilderment.”
I personally refer to this CEO’s response as techno-babbling; and it serves no purpose whatsoever when dealing with users - especially brand new ones.
Particularly when coming through a support channel, such as a service desk, if a user already understood a response like this, they wouldn’t have needed to ask for help in the first place. Although the explanation may be technically correct, if it is above the user’s comprehension level it is wasting their time.
My motto is: If a concept can be explained simply, it should be. Using techno-babble is counter productive because it makes users feel stupid - as though they should understand what you’re saying but don’t.
User support is as much about educating people and providing customer service as it is about fixing their problems. And to do this you have to speak to their comfort and experience levels.
This goes for emerging technologies as well. If you are trying to inspire uptake of a service or product, users must be able to visualise the technology within a framework they understand, and as importantly, see value in. If a user fails to see value in something, you can rest assured they won’t use it.
In that sense, by saying “RSS is an XML-based content syndication format.” the CEO wasted his own time, as well as the user’s. The user walked away just as clueless as they began, the opportunities inherent in RSS were insufficiently explained and undersold, and the CEO lost a valuable opportunity to inspire uptake.
As Lee LeFever summed up: “It’s not always ‘what is it?’ as much as ‘why should I care about it?’”
