The Simple Solution to Evergreen Images

We all know a picture is worth a thousand words. In documentation and customer education, a clear image can make or break how well end users understand the accompanying text.

The problem in customer education for technical products is that frequent product updates can render some or all of your educational images out-of-date.

I've been fascinated for some time with one solution to this problem: the simplified user interface (SUI). Here's an example from Outlook's "Coming Soon" in-product guidance.

It's not fancy, but this image could certainly get a point across if you were instructing a reader where to click.

For a comparison, here's what an actual screen shot of the same interface looks like.

So what's the big deal? The SUI image takes a bit more time to prepare than a screen shot.

But that extra time pays off big with two main benefits.

1. These images have a potentially much longer shelf-life in your help and other educational content.
2. ​You can scrub any personal or sensitive information.

For example, in the following image, I was able to easily and quickly simulate the Outlook environment by using a real Outlook environment and then masking the information for the purposes of this educational content.

​And honestly, this is a quick and dirty example that's not nearly as visually appealing as the above Outlook example.

If you are localizing your educational content, you already know how complex that can make your project. Using SUI images means you could potentially use the same images across content in multiple languages.

The good news is that SnagIt 2019 by TechSmith has a new feature that automatically simplifies your image. Just grab your screen shot and SnagIt does almost everything else.

Here's a demonstration using that same "real" screen shot from Outlook.

Ok, maybe the image is still not perfect in under 5 seconds. But those colored rectangles can be styled or removed individually, and it's easy to add your own if you can't find the right balance using the Auto Simplify feature. (Tip - use the Detail slider to change how SnagIt interprets what needs to be simplified in the image.)

With just a little more time and customization, here's that same image.

It might not look as awesome as you could do by mocking it up in Photoshop, but it gets the point across quickly and without any advanced graphics skills.

To learn more about why and how to use Simplified User Interface images in your content strategy, you can read ​this article from TechSmith, one of many they have on using SUI.