CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Current Issues in Assessing and Improving Documentation Usability
Stephanie Rosenbaum
Tec-Ed, Inc.
P.O. Box 1905
Ann Arbor, MI 48106 USA
+1-313-995-1010 voice
+1-313-995-1025 fax
stephanie@teced.com
Laurie Kantner
Tec-Ed, Inc.
P.O. Box 1905
Ann Arbor, MI 48106 USA
+1-313-995-1010 voice
+1-313-995-1025 fax
laurie@teced.com
Keywords
Documentation, documentation usability, information design, information development, documentation standards, usability testing, product development
© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SIG
User documentation is now a vital element of successful computer products. Managers and developers recognize that the common model of documentation as remediation for deficient design must not persist, but they often don't know how to build documentation usability into an ongoing product-development effort. The challenges of documentation usability have grown with the proliferation of available media:
- Traditional print-based documentation
- Online tutorials and documentation delivered with the product
- Online help systems
- Documentation delivered over the WWW
- "Educational" and performance support elements of the user interface: wizards, error messages, screen dialogue
Therefore, this SIG -- now in its eighth annual session -- is a forum on human factors in computer documentation. This Meeting provides CHI 97 attendees a specific opportunity to discuss recent developments in documentation usability. Topics include:
- Integrating documentation and rest-of-product usability testing
- Documentation on the Web (quality issues, update schedules, work processes)
- Techniques for collecting documentation usability data early in the product development cycle
- Structuring document libraries (what in print, what online, what both)
- The documentation/help interface (are we in the same product?)
- Changing role of the documentor in software development (as information designers, as UI designers)
- Cost-justifying documentation usability programs
The structure of the SIG is informal discussion, moderated by the session leaders. If attendees have additional issues or concerns related to documentation usability, we welcome them.
The first five minutes of the session will be used to create and prioritize a list of specific topics for discussion. We will take detailed meeting notes of the session and make them available to the SIG participants after the conference.
CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
