Fwd: Research on software help

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Greg Austin <[email protected]>
> Date: April 8, 2011 4:25:49 PM PDT
> To: Cate de Heer <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [BayCHI Discussions] Research on software help
>
> In my personal experience of writing Help manuals, and wrestling
> with context-sensitive alphanumeric Help files, all of the above
> misses the main point: That the interface is not intuitive to start
> with.
>
> Further, Help can add even more problems.
>
> For example, if a new user to Microsoft Word wants to divide his
> text by drawing a line between paragraphs--and searches Help for
> "line"--he will get alphanumeric information from the Help file that
> describes how Microsoft Word magically wraps alphanumeric text onto
> the next line. However, nowhere will the Help describe what the user
> wants to do--which is add a "rule".
>
> Therefore, Help is not.
>
> Such is feature-bucket design.
>
> Reciprocally, interfaces MUST be PRIMARILY developed based on
> evidence--not on stab-in-the-dark opinions to later be tested.
>
> Greg
> On Apr 7, 2011, at 10:58 PM, Cate de Heer wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm interested in any data on how users (end users and developers)
>> access and use help documentation. In particular, I'm interested in
>> the following:
>>
>> _ Expectations or results when users encounter help documentation
>> on the developer's website or via a search engine (I'm familiar
>> with studies from 10 or more years ago indicating low user
>> expectations from the documentation in a software help menu)
>>
>> _ The success of different approaches to information architecture
>> for online documentation; for example, self-contained, one-page
>> topics versus the longstanding "help manual" model with several
>> levels of hierarchy
>>
>> _ Any differences between approaches that work well for end users
>> specifically or for developers
>>
>> Cate
>>
>>
>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>> The real technologybehind all of our other technologiesis language.
>> Norman Fischer
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>
> Greg Austin
> [email protected]
>
>
>

Greg Austin
[email protected]
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