Unit 7- User Documentation and
Online Help
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Introduction
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Online Versus Paper Documentation
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Reading from Paper versus from Displays
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Shaping the content of the Documentation
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Accessing the Documentation
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Online Tutorials and Animated
Demonstrations
12. User Documentation and Online Help
12.1. Introduction :
• Modern interactive systems are expected to provide online help, online manuals, and interactive tutorials to serve user needs for training and reference.
• Box 12.1 Taxonomy of user documentation, online help and tutorials(pg : 477)
• Domain covered by help system – description of interface objects(syntactic), sequences of actions(semantic), task-domain specific knowledge(pragmatic)
• Degree of integration in the interface
• - online documentation and tutorial(independent interface)
• -online help(integrated into the interface)
• -context-sensitive help(user-controlled)
• Time of intervention(before starting, at the beginning of the interaction)
• Media(Text,graphics,Voice, Video, Animation)
12.2. Online Versus Paper Documentation
• There are many reasons to have online manuals. The reasons include :
• Physical advantages
• Navigation Features
• Interactive services
• Economic advantages
• Negative side effects
Physical advantages : Information is available whenever the electronic device or computer is
available. There is no need to locate the correct manual.
Users no need to allocate physical workspace to opening up manuals. Paper manuals are clumsy to use and can clutter a workspace.
Information is electronically updated rapidly and at low cost.
12.2. 12.2. Online Versus Paper Documentation
• Linking within texts can guide readers to related materials(dictionaries, encyclopaedias, translations, and web resources)
Interactive services :
• Readers can bookmark , annotate and send the text and annotations by e- mail.
• Authors can use graphics, sound, color, and animations that may be helpful in explaining complex actions and creating an engaging experience for users.
• Readers can turn to newsgroups, online communities, email, chat and instant messages for further help from other users.
12.2. 12.2. Online Versus Paper Documentation
Economic advantages :
• Online manuals are cheaper to duplicate and distribute than paper manuals.
Negative side effects :
• Displays may not be as readable as paper manuals.
• Each display may contain less information than a sheet of paper.
• The user interface of online help systems may be novel and confusing to novices.
• The extra mental effort required for navigating through many screens is difficult.
12.2. 12.2. Online Versus Paper Documentation
12.3. Reading from Paper Versus from Displays
• The potential disadvantages of reading from displays include :
• Fonts may be poor especially on low resolution displays.
• The dots composing the letters may be so large that each is visible, which needs some user effort to recognize characters.
• Low contrast between the characters and the background and fuzzy character boundaries also can cause trouble.
• Emitted light from displays may be more difficult to read than reflected light from paper.
• Small displays require frequent page turning.
12.3. Reading from Paper Versus from Displays
• Layout and formatting can be problems – improper margins, inappropriate line widths, or awkward justification.
• Multicolumn layouts may require constant scrolling up and down.
• Reduced hand and body motion with fixed-position displays, as compared to paper, may be more fatiguing.
• Unfamiliarity of displays and the anxiety of navigating the text can increase stress.
13.3. Reading from Paper Versus from Displays
A clear message for designers :
• High-resolution and larger displays are recommended if users are to read large amounts of material online.
• Short response times, fast display rates, black text on white background, and
page-sized displays are important considerations if displayed text is meant to replace paper documents.
• eg : Microsoft Word (limits the number of controls and increases the space
• available for the text)
• The U.S. National Academy of Sciences makes more than a thousand of its books
available for free online in a convenient format and this service promotes sales of their paper books.
• Documentation designers have to structure their materials so that they can be read on small, medium and large displays and at different font sizes to accommodate
12.4 Shaping the Content of the Documentation
• Traditionally, training and reference materials for computer systems were paper manuals.
• Writing these manuals was often left to the most junior member of the development team as a low-effort task at the end of the project.
• As a result, the manuals were often poorly written, were not suited to the background of the users, were delayed or incomplete and were tested inadequately.
• By now, managers recognize that testing and revisions must be done before
widespread dissemination(distribution)and that system success is closely
coupled to documentation quality.
12.4 Shaping the content of the manuals
• Towards minimal manuals
• Organization and writing style
12.4.1. Towards minimal manuals
• Learners apparently prefer trying out actions on the computer, rather than reading lengthy manuals.
• They want to perform meaningful familiar task immediately and to see the results.
• They apply real-world knowledge, experiences with other interfaces and frequent guess work.
12.4 Shaping the content of the manuals
• These observations led to the design of minimal manuals that promote guided exploration of system features, and support error recognition and recovery.
• The key principle of user manual design have been defined over time and described in detail.
• Box 12.2. User manual guidelines based on practice and empirical studies
• Choose an action oriented approach
• Let users task guide an organization
• Support error recognition and recovery
• Support reading to do, study and locate
• Every good manual should have a table of contents and an index.
• Glossaries can be helpful for clarifying technical terms. Appendices with error messages are recommended.
• Visual aspects are helpful to readers, especially with highly visual direct manipulation interfaces and graphical user interfaces.
12.4 Shaping the content of the manuals
• 12.4.2 Organization and writing style :
• Designing instructional materials is a challenging endeavour. The author must be knowledgeable about the technical content; sensitive to the background,
reading level and intellectual ability of the reader and skilled in writing lucid(clear) prose.
• A precise(accurate) statement of the instructional objectives is an invaluable guide to the author and the reader.
• The choice of word and their phrasing is as important as the overall structure. • The Elements of Style and Writing Well are two classic books on writing and
are valuable resources.
• Writing is a highly creative art, effective writers are national treasures.
12.5. Accessing the Documentation
• Introduction:
• Studies have confirmed that well-designed online documentation can be very effective.
• Most user avoid user manuals and prefer to learn interface features by
exploration . Even when problems arise, many users are reluctant to consult written documentation.
• Documentation is often placed online and multiple ways are available to search and traverse the online information.
• It offers the context-sensitive help.
• Standard formats such as WinHelp and Windows HTML Help have stimulated
development of a growing number of software tools, such as RoboHelp and
12.5. Accessing the Documentation
12.5.1. Online documentation
• Most manufacturers now put their user documentation online.
• For mobile devices, small displays limit the possibilities, but providing helpful instructions on the device should still be a priority.
12.5 Accessing the Documentation
• Online manuals that allow for local annotations, synonyms, or translations have enhanced value. Additional services include bookmarking and automatic history keeping that allows backtracking.
• Designers will be more effective when they design online documentation to fit the electronic medium, and take advantage of text highlighting, color, sound, animation, and especially string search with relevance feedback.
• A vital feature of online documentation is a properly designed table of contents that can remain visible to the side of the displayed page of text.
• Selection of a chapter or other entry in the table of contents should immediately produce the appropriate page on the display.
12.5 Accessing the Documentation
• 12.5.2. Online Help
• The traditional approach is to have users type or select a help-menu item and to
display a list of alphabetically arranged topics for which there is a paragraph or more of helpful information that users can read.
• This method can work, but it is often frustrating for those users who are not sure of the correct term for the task they wish to accomplish.
• They may see several familiar terms (search, query, select, browse, find, reveal, display, info or view) but not know which one to select.
• Sometimes simple list –keyboard shortcuts, menu items or mouse shortcuts can provide the necessary information. Each item in the list might have an accompanying feature description. But such list can be overwhelming.
• Some of the complaints about online help are :
– Trouble navigating the help menu
– Incomplete information provided
13.4 Shaping the content of the manuals
12.5.3. Context-sensitive help
• The simplest way to take context into account is to monitor the cursor location and provide helpful information about the object under the cursor.
• This form of user-controlled interactive object help is readily understandable to users and even fun to use.
• Another approach is to provide system-initiated help , often called “intelligent help” that tries to make use of interaction history, a model of the user population ,and a representation of their tasks to make assumptions about what users need.
• User –controlled interactive object help
• System-initiated help
12.4 Shaping the content of the manuals
User –controlled interactive object help :
Based on interactive widgets in the interface
user position the cursor on a widget and then press a help key or remain still for a couple of seconds to produce information about the object on which the cursor is resting.
This is often called a tool tip, screen tip, or balloon help.
Another approach is to
dedicate a portion of
the display to help, which is updated
automatically as users hover over or select
interface widgets.
User controlled help can also be used for
objects such as control panels or forms.
12.4 Shaping the content of the manuals
System-initiated help :
• A system-initiated help system has been implemented in the Smalltalk
programming environment , where cartoon-like gurus appear on the display and offer audio commentaries with animated demonstrations of the graphical user interface.
• Intelligent help systems that provide system-initiated support have generally failed.
• Eg : Microsoft’s Office Assistant(or clippit).
• Many users considered the paper clip so intrusive that they immediately turned it off.
Hybrid approaches :
This is a mixed-initiative approach in which initiative is shared between the user and the system and an advice-giving approach. Eg : Letizia gives advice and
12.5.4. Special populations
•
Computer systems and their accompanying documentation
are used by a diverse population interacting with the range of
applications and complexities.
• International and cross-cultural issues – 5 important elements to be
considered : the purpose, the audience, the content, the organization of the materials, and the style. Eg: differing vocabularies.
• Older adult users – icons should be defined and acronyms and key
phrases should be introduced.
• Users with disabilities: these users can use alternative methods of input
12.6. Online Tutorials and Animated Demonstrations
• An online tutorial is an interactive training environment in which users can view explanatory descriptions of user –interface objects and actions.
• Depending on the complexity of the interface and the amount of time users are ready to spend absorbing the tutorial materials , they might be served well by an extensive computer-based
training module , an animated demonstration of features, or a recorded welcome message from a familiar person.
• The challenge often is to prepare materials that will satisfy users who want a three-minute introduction as well as those who need a one-hour in-depth treatment.
12.6.1. Online Tutorials :
• The opportunity for carrying out practice tasks as part of online tutorials is one of the greatest strength.
• Eg: Tutorial for Adobe Photoshop package displays the exact steps users must make.
• The performance of high-experience subjects significantly get improved when they were trained using exercises.
12.6. Online Tutorials and Animated Demonstrations
• Start-up tip:
-- Each time users start the interface, they get a pop-up box displaying a brief explanation of a feature. Some systems monitor user behavior and show start-up tips only for features that are not used by this particular user.
12.6.2. Animated demonstrations and multimedia:
• Animated demonstrations have become a modern high-tech art form.
• Manufacturers originally designed them mostly to attract potential users of
software or hardware by showing off system features using the best animations, color, graphics, sound, and information presentation that advertising agencies can produce.
12.6. Online Tutorials and Animated Demonstrations
• 12.6.2. Animated demonstrations and multimedia(contd..)
• Animation is preferable to demonstrate direct-manipulation interactions such as drag-and-drop operations, zoom boxes, or dynamic query sliders.
• A video recording of a person using the interface can help clarify how special hardware is to be used.
• Users have also been shown to be faster and more accurate to perform tasks
after being shown animated demonstration rather than textual explanations.
•
12.6.2. Animated demonstrations and
multimedia(contd..)
•
A multi-layered design of Dynamap allows
novices to start with simple interface
consisting of only a map in level 1, level 2
provides dynamic query filters and level3 with
scatterplots.
•
sticky note approach was also useful with
dynamic queries for map software.
12.7. Online Communities For User Assistance
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Instead of conversations with computers to get help,
interaction
with other people online is proving to be effective.
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The communal approach may
employ e-mail, chat, or instant
messaging for question asking and responses.
•
Questions can be sent to a designated help desk or staff person, or
posted on a discussion board.
•
Responses can be received in seconds or , minutes or hours , but
12.8. The Development Process
• Recognizing the difference between a good and bad manual is necessary for
producing a successful manual on time and within a reasonable budget.
• Production of a manual, like any project must be managed properly, staffed with suitable personnel, and monitored with appropriate milestones.
• Development Process Guidelines :
Seek professional writers and copy writers.
Prepare user manuals early(before implementation) Review drafts thoroughly.
Field test early editions.
Provide a feedback mechanism for readers. Revise to reflect changes regularly.
– Each version of manual eliminates known errors, adds refinements, and
