Quick reference cards for use in a delivery truck?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Salan Sinclair wonders: <<Can any one provide advice or examples on creating
a quick reference card for a Pocket PC application that drivers use in a
delivery truck? I'm thinking that it should fit in a glove box or visor, and
be very sturdy.>>

Are you sure a physical card is really the best solution? I used to work
with truck drivers (many years in a warehouse for my pre-university summer
jobs), and my impression is that pieces of paper got lost awfully
frequently. Even when they didn't actually disappear forever into the void,
they were often buried so deep in other paper (bills of lading, bundles of
stained and torn banknotes) that it took a good 15 minutes of searching to
find them.

Many Pocket PCs (such as my Palm) let you switch between applications at the
click of a button, suggesting that an online document might work just as
well; if nothing else, it can't be lost quite so easily. If a physical piece
of cardstock really is the best solution (it might well be), consider the
following aspects in designing it:
- if the PC comes in a "wallet" (like my Palm), design the card so it
attaches securely to the wallet and folds out in such a way that it can be
viewed side by side with the display; a sticker that mounts on the screen
cover might be another possible solution
- since trucks are often dirty or wet (the nature of the biz), make sure the
card is laminated or at least highly resistant to water and stains
- choose an organisational structure that makes it easy to find the desired
commands or functions; for example, you can't alphabetize icons, so perhaps
icons should be presented in the order in which they appear on a toolbar
etc.
- pick an approach (e.g., a sequence of presenting information) that matches
the sequence the drivers would use

Of course, you'll need to find out a bit about your audience to learn how
they actually use the PC, the environment in which it's used, and so on. If
you go to the trouble to find this out, you might as well ask their
preferences for the card while you're at it.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can
think."--Edwin Schlossberg, designer (1945- )


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