Online help systems

Houghton, Raymond C

doi:10.1145/69610.357985

Cited by 77 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Various suggestions have been made within the' more general context of on-line aiding. For example, many researchers have hypothesized that feedback related to user goals and suggestions regarding error correction would be useful (Houghton 1984, Wilensky 1984, Aaronson and Carroll 1987, McKendree and Carroll 1987, Elkerton 1988. Results from studies employing non-natural language interfaces have indicated that providing suggested corrections (Magers 1983) and using goal-oriented feedback (Moll and Fischbacher 1989) improves performance. '…”

Section: Development Of Appropriate Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of feedback on performance and retention of skill for a natural language interface

Bisantz

1993

Behaviour & Information Technology

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This study investigated the effectiveness of different types of on-linefeedbackfollowing user errors for informing users of the information and functions available in a system with a natural.language interface. Twenty-four individuals performed a task based on an industry cost savings program. in which they were given general goals to pursue with regard to the task. Three feedback levelswhich differed according to the type and amount of feedback provided, along with two levels of system complexity, were examined. In addition, subjects performed the task again after one week to determine the effects of feedback on retention. Results indicated that the subjects in the second level of feedback generally performed better with respect to accessing system functions and information than those in the first level. Although there was some performance improvement from the second to third level, it was not significant. However, the third levelof feedback did significantly improvethe efficiency with which subjects used information to complete the task during the return condition. Overall, feedback did not affect the errors made, though at certain more limitedstagesof the tasks this effect was observed.

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Section: Development Of Appropriate Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of feedback on performance and retention of skill for a natural language interface

Bisantz

1993

Behaviour & Information Technology

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“…Research into tutorials and help systems [7,19,21,22] has explored multimodal interfaces [16], behavior modeling [32], and intelligent help systems [1,12,27]. Many solutions have been created utilizing hypertext to provide easy access to help [11,20].…”

Section: Existing Technology and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are many guides for creating tutorials on the desktop [7,19,21,22] and for the Web [8,28], but less is known about how VIUs approach computer usage and their concerns with adopting new software. To gain further insight, we conducted five 2-hour interviews with members of the visually impaired community.…”

Section: Interviews With Visually Impaired Usersmentioning

confidence: 99%

DTorial: An Interactive Tutorial Framework for Blind Users in a Web 2.0 World

Hailpern

Reid

Boardman

2009

Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2009

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Abstract. Effective tutorial systems can help promote products by reducing barriers of learning new applications. With dynamic web applications becoming as complex as desktop programs, there is a growing need for online tutorial/help systems. For visually impaired users the key limitations of traditional help systems are 1) poor access to help content with assistive technology, and 2) frequent reliance on videos/images to identify parts of web applications and demonstrate functionality. In this paper, we present a new interaction model, targeted towards screen-reader users, that describes how to embed an interactive tutorial within a web application. The interaction model is demonstrated within a system called DTorial, a fully functional dynamic audiobased tutorial with embedded content. While remaining within the web application, users can rapidly access any tutorial content, injected inline near relevant application controls, allowing them to quickly apply what they just heard to the application itself, without ever losing their position or having to shift windows. The model and implementation are grounded in sighted user help-systems literature and an analysis of screen-reader and Web-Application interactions. Lessons learned from the incremental design and evaluations indicate that providing visually impaired users with dynamic, embedded, interactive audio-based tutorial systems can reduce the barriers to new WebApplications.

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“…Houghton (1984) identified the types of assistance offered in online help systems at that time: command, help and error assistance, prompting, online tutorials, and online documentation. Krull, Friauf, Brown-Grant, and Eaton (2001) tested different phrases of an online help system and concluded that none of the help system features can thoroughly assist users to successfully accomplish their tasks, and they also identified the problems of help organization and help vocabulary.…”

Section: Help Use In Different Ir Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding help seeking within the context of searching digital libraries

Xie

Cool

2008

J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci.

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To date, there has been little empirical research investigating the specific types of help-seeking situations that arise when people interact with information in new searching environments such as digital libraries. This article reports the results of a project focusing on the identification of different types of help-seeking situations, along with types of factors that precipitate them among searchers of two different digital libraries. Participants (N = 120) representing the general public in Milwaukee and New York City were selected for this study. Based on the analysis of multiple sources of data, the authors identify 15 types of help-seeking situations among this sample of novice digital library users. These situations are related to the searching activities involved in getting started, identifying relevant digital collections, browsing for information, constructing search statements, refining searches, monitoring searches, and evaluating results. Multiple factors that determine the occurrences of each type of help-seeking situation also are identified. The article concludes with a model that represents user, system, task, and interaction outcome as codeterminates in the formation of help-seeking situations, and presents the theoretical and practical implications of the study results.

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Online help systems

Cited by 77 publications

References 17 publications

The effects of feedback on performance and retention of skill for a natural language interface

The effects of feedback on performance and retention of skill for a natural language interface

DTorial: An Interactive Tutorial Framework for Blind Users in a Web 2.0 World

Understanding help seeking within the context of searching digital libraries

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