User Documentation

1
User Documentation

• CIS 577
• Bruce R. Maxim
• UM-Dearborn

2
System Delivery

• Training
• Documentation
• Likely User Audience
• Users
• Operators

3
Introduction

• When it comes to learning about computer systems
  many people experience anxiety, frustration, and
  disappointment
• Even though increasing attention is being paid to
  improving interface design, complex systems can
  still benefit both paper and online help

4
Printed Documentation

• Install Manual
• Alphabetic command lists
• Quick reference cards
• Brief getting started notes
• Novice user tutorials
• Conversion manuals
• Detailed reference manuals

5
On-Line Documentation

• Man pages
• Help facility
• On-line Tutorials
• Demonstration
• Context-sensitive help
• FAQs
• On-line communities and user groups

6
On-Line Manuals

• Can provide successively more detailed error
  explanations
• Personalized instruction on system use is
  possible
• Examples of correct commands
• Descriptions of current system parameters
• Lists of commands
• News for system users
• List of available user aids

7
Advantages of On-Line Manuals

• Information is available when computer is
  available
• User dont need space to open printed manuals
• Manual updates are low cost
• Electronic indexing allow fast search of manual
• Multimedia help may be beneficial

8
Disadvantages of On-Line Manuals

• Displays may not be as easy to read as print
  manuals
• Each screen contains less info than 1 printed
  page
• Interface operations may confuse novices
• Splitting display among work, help, and tutorials
  leaves less useful screen space
• Additional burden on user

9
Matching User Goals to Tools
10
Paper vs On-line Manuals - 1

• There are many reasons to have online manuals
• Physical advantages
• Navigation features
• Interactive services
• Economic advantages

11
Paper vs On-line Manuals - 2

• There are some potentially negative side effects
• Displays may not be as readable as paper manuals
• Each display may contain substantially 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 screen may interfere with
  concentration and learning, and annotation can be
  difficult
• Splitting the display between work and help or
  tutorial windows reduces the space for work
  displays
• Small devices such as cell phones do not have
  enough display space to provide online help

12
Paper vs Displays

• Numerous studies have found 15 to 30 slower
  task times for comprehension or proofreading of
  text on computer displays, compared to on paper

13
Why is it harder to read text on computer screens?

• Poor fonts, especially on low resolution displays
  
• Low contrast between characters and the
  background
• Fuzzy character boundaries
• Emitted light from displays may be more difficult
  to read by than reflected light from paper
• Glare may be greater on displays
• Screen flicker can be a problem

14
Why is it harder to read text on computer screens?

• Curved display surface may be problem
• Small displays require more frequent page turning
  
• Reading distance can be greater than for paper
• Displays are fixed in place
• Display placement may be too high for comfortable
  reading
• Layout and formatting problems

15
Why is it harder to read text on computer screens?

• Reduced hand and body motions with displays as
  compared to paper may be fatiguing
• Rigid posture for displays may also be fatiguing
• Unfamiliarity of displays and the anxiety that
  the image may disappear can increase stress

16
Common Documentation Problems

• Simply presents operator descriptions
• Organized according to system functions, not user
  goals
• Too much for novice users to take in
• Rarely presents complete methods explicitly
• Talks about how system works, not how it can be
  used
• User must problem solve even simple tasks
• Rarely presents selection rules

17
Shaping the content of manuals

• Traditionally, training and reference material
  often written by junior member of development
  team
• manuals were often poorly written
• were not suited to the background of the users
• were delayed or incomplete
• were not tested adequately

18
Shaping the content of manuals

• The benefits of well-designed manuals include
  shorter learning times, better user performance,
  increased user satisfaction, and few calls for
  support
• The active user paradox
• Users eagerness to conduct meaningful activities
  often stops them from spending time just
  learning, and therefore their skills remain
  mediocre.

19
Shaping the content of manuals

• Minimal manuals encourage active involvement with
  hands-on experiences
• Carroll's guided exploration
• choose an action-oriented approach
• anchor the tool in the task domain
• support error recognition and recovery
• support reading to do, study, and locate
• Show numerous well-chosen screen prints that
  demonstrate typical uses (predictive model)
• Table of contents and index required
• Glossaries for clarifying technical terms
• Appendices for error messages

20
Use of the OAI model to design manuals

• Introductory tutorial
• task training first
• learn the hierarchy of objects, from high level
  down to the atomic
• recognize the range of high-level intentions down
  to specific action steps
• learn about the interface representations
• start with familiar objects and actions
• link these concepts to high-level interface
  objects and actions
• show syntax needed to accomplish each task
• Conversion manual
• users knowledgeable about task domain, but
  unfamiliar with specific software
• need presentation showing relationship between
  metaphors and already known plans and the new
  ones required by the new software
• Quick reference
• user knowledgeable about task and interface
  objects and actions
• needs details to convert their plans into
  detailed actions
• Sample sessions extremely helpful in giving
  portrait of system features and interaction
  styles
• Flow diagrams provide visual overviews that
  orients users to transitions from one activity to
  another

21
Organization and writing style

• Precise statement of educational objectives
• Present concepts in a logical sequence with
  increasing order of difficulty
• Ensure that each concept is used in subsequent
  sections
• Avoid forward references
• Construct sections with approximately equal
  amounts of new material
• Need sufficient examples and complete sample
  sessions
• Choice of words and phrases important
• Style guides for organizations attempt to ensure
  consistency and high quality
• Writing style should match users' reading ability

22
Online manuals and help

• Kearsley's guidelines for online help systems
• Make the help system easy to access and easy to
  return from.
• Make help as specific as possible.
• Collect data to determine what help is needed.
• Give users as much control as possible over the
  help system.
• Make help messages accurate and complete.
• Do not use help to compensate for poor interface
  design.

23
Online manuals and help

• Online Manuals
• Reproduction of printed manuals online
• paper page layouts may not convert well
• dealing with figures problematic
• attractive if users have large enough display
  (full page)
• close match between printed and online versions
  useful
• Enhanced by special online features
• string search
• multiple indices
• multiple tables of contents
• tables of figures
• electronic bookmarks
• electronic annotations
• hypertext traversal
• automatic history keeping

24
Online manuals and help

• Online Manuals (cont.)
• Most effective if manuals redesigned to fit
  electronic medium to take advantage of
• multiple windows
• text highlighting
• color
• sound
• animation
• string search with relevance feedback
• Properly designed table of contents that can
  remain visible to side of text page vital
• Novices need tutorials
• Intermittent knowledgeable users can handle
  concise descriptions of interface syntax and
  semantics
• Keyword lists improved by clustering into
  meaningful categories

25
Online manuals and help

• Online Help
• Traditionally, little information about how to
  assemble actions to perform tasks
• Users expect to be able to search the full text
  of online documents
• Expanding and contracting table of contents can
  be combined with search
• The online help and support center for Microsoft
  Windows XP contains articles/topics and search
  options
• An answer wizard can respond to natural language
  requests

26
Online manuals and help

• Context-sensitive help
• User-controlled, interactive
• object help
• Small pop-up box
• Dedicated portion of the display
• Intelligent help users interaction history, a
  model of user population, and a representation of
  their tasks to make assumptions about what users
  want
• Development of intelligent help systems face
  serious usability challenges
• Clippit
• Hybrid approaches
• Initiative is shared between the user and system
• Unobtrusive advice from system, but requires space

27
Online tutorials, demonstrations, and animations

• Online tutorials
• Does not have to keep shifting attention between
  the terminal and the instructional material
• Practices the skills needed to use the system
• Can work alone at an individual pace and without
  the embarrassment of mistakes made before a human
  instructor or fellow students
• Start-up tips

28
Online tutorials, demonstrations, and animations

• Demonstration systems
• Distributed on disk, CD-ROM, or over Internet
• Designed to attract potential users
• Typically show off system features using
  animation, color graphics, sound, etc.
• User-interface requirements are to
• capture and maintain user interest
• convey information
• build positive product image
• Typical controls
• automatic or manual pacing
• length of demonstration (short versus in-depth)
• stop, replay, skip
• A screen capture animation is easy to produce
  with standard tools such as Camtasia
• Games often have a 30 second demonstration

29
Online tutorials, demonstrations, and animations

• Guides
• Audio and video recording of human guides or
  cartoon figures to lead users through information
• GUIDES 3.0 project
• Audio tours of art galleries
• Audio or video lectures may be played on a
  computer or a separate system
• Video Professor

30
Online communities for user assistance

• Help networks using email
• sent to designated help desk or staff person
• sent to general list within organization
• users must publicly expose their lack of
  knowledge
• risk of getting incorrect advice
• Communal approach means low cost for software
  maintenance
• Microsoft actively encourages it
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ) lists for
  newcomers

31
Development process

• Allows adequate time for review, testing, and
  refinement
• Manual can act as a more complete and
  comprehensible alternative to formal
  specifications
• Manual writer becomes effective critic, reviewer,
  or question asker
• Enables pilot testing of software's learnability
• Allows for reviews and suggestions by designers,
  etc.
• Informal walkthroughs with users possible
• Field trials with moderate numbers of users
  facilitated

32
Printed Manual Guidelines - 1

• Let user's task guide organization
• Let user learning process shape sequencing
• Present semantics before syntax
• Keep writing style clean and simple
• Show numerous examples
• Offer meaningful and complete sample sessions
• Draw transition diagrams

33
Printed Manual Guidelines - 2

• Use advance organizers and summaries
• Provide table of contents, indices, and
  glossaries
• Include list of error messages
• Give credit to all project participants

34
Process for Developing Print Manuals

• Use professional writers and copy editors
• Prepare user manuals before implementation
• Review drafts thoroughly
• Field test early drafts
• Provide feedback mechanism to readers
• Revise to reflect changes regularly

35
Slides from the Dixtextbook
36
User Support

• Issues
• different types of support at different times
• implementation and presentation both important
• all need careful design
• Types of user support
• quick reference, task specific help, full
  explanation, tutorial
• Provided by help and documentation
• help - problem-oriented and specific
• documentation - system-oriented and general
• same design principles apply to both

37
Requirements

• Availability
• continuous access concurrent to main application
• Accuracy and completeness
• help matches and covers actual system behaviour
• Consistency
• between different parts of the help system and
  paper documentation
• Robustness
• correct error handling and npredictable behaviour
• Flexibility
• allows user to interact in a way appropriate to
  experience and task
• Unobtrusiveness
• does not prevent the user continuing with work

38
Approaches to user support

• Command assistance
• User requests help on particular command e.g.,
  UNIX man, DOS help
• Good for quick reference
• Assumes user know what to look for
• Command prompts
• Provide information about correct usage when an
  error occurs
• Good for simple syntactic errors
• Also assumes knowledge of the command

39
Approaches to user support (ctd)

• Context sensitive help
• help request interpreted according to context in
  which it occurs. e.g. tooltips
• On-line tutorials
• user works through basics of application in a
  test environment.
• can be useful but are often in flexible.
• On-line documentation
• paper documentation is made available on
  computer.
• continually available in common medium
• can be difficult to browse
• hypertext used to support browsing.

40
wizards and assistants

• wizards
• task specific tool leads the user through task,
  step by step, using users answers to specific
  questions
• example resumé
• useful for safe completion of complex or
  infrequent tasks
• constrained task execution so limited flexibility
• must allow user to go back
• assistants
• monitor user behaviour and offer contextual
  advice
• can be irritating e.g. MS paperclip
• must be under user control e.g. XP smart tags

41
Adaptive Help Systems

• Use knowledge of the context, individual user,
  task, domain and instruction to provide help
  adapted to user's needs.
• Problems
• knowledge requirements considerable
• who has control of the interaction?
• what should be adapted?
• what is the scope of the adaptation?

42
Knowledge representationUser modeling

• All help systems have a model of the user
• single, generic user (non-intelligent)
• user-configured model (adaptable)
• system-configure model (adaptive)

43
Approaches to user modelling

• Quantification
• user moves between levels of expertise
• based on quantitative measure of what he knows.
• Stereotypes
• user is classified into a particular category.
• Overlay
• idealized model of expert use is constructed
• actual use compared to ideal
• model may contain the commonality or difference
• Special case user behaviour compared to known
  error catalogue

44
Knowledge representationDomain and task
modelling

• Covers
• common errors and tasks
• current task
• Usually involves analysis of command sequences.
• Problems
• representing tasks
• interleaved tasks
• user intention

45
Knowledge representationAdvisory strategy

• involves choosing the correct style of advice for
  a given situation. e.g. reminder, tutorial, etc.
• few intelligent help systems model advisory
  strategy, but choice of strategy is still
  important.

46
Techniques for knowledge representation

• rule based (e.g. logic, production rules)
• knowledge presented as rules and facts
• interpreted using inference mechanism
• can be used in relatively large domains.
• frame based (e.g. semantic network)
• knowledge stored in structures with slots to be
  filled
• useful for a small domain.
• network based
• knowledge represented as relationships between
  facts
• can be used to link frames.
• example based
• knowledge represented implicitly within decision
  structure
• trained to classify rather than programmed with
  rules
• requires little knowledge acquisition

47
Problems with knowledge representation and
modelling

• knowledge acquisition
• resources
• interpretation of user behaviour

48
Issues in adaptive help

• Initiative
• does the user retain control or can the system
  direct the interaction?
• can the system interrupt the user to offer help?
• Effect
• what is going to be adapted and what information
  is needed to do this?
• only model what is needed.
• Scope
• is modelling at application or system level?
• latter more complex e.g. expertise varies
  between applications.

49
Designing user support

• User support is not an add on
• should be designed integrally with the system.
• Concentrate on content and context of help rather
  than technological issues.

50
Presentation issues

• How is help requested?
• command, button, function (on/off), separate
  application
• How is help displayed?
• new window, whole screen, split screen,
• pop-up boxes, hint icons
• Effective presentation requires
• clear, familiar, consistent language
• instructional rather than descriptive language
• avoidance of blocks of text
• clear indication of summary and example
  information

51
Implementation issues

• Is help
• operating system command
• meta command
• application
• Structure of help data
• single file
• file hierarchy
• database

• What resources are available?
• screen space
• memory capacity
• speed
• Issues
• flexibility and extensibility
• hard copy
• browsing