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Subject:RE: Why PDF for online help? From:"Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 10 Mar 2003 08:42:41 -0500
Hey, usability tests showed that "Clippy" and "Microsoft Bob" were good
things. Sometimes I wonder what they put in that orange juice, or maybe
how much.
::: I read the mailing list on the newsgroup echo, so can't
::: post, but feel free to quote me on this one. (Address
::: appropriately munged, of course!)
:::
::: ""Bill Swallow"" wrote ...
::: >
::: > ::: If you call it ONLINE HELP, they don't click on it
::: > ::: (studies show). However, if you don't name it, and
::: > ::: simply make it available, like a flash tour, or a pdf
::: > ::: file, the automatic conditioned negative response is
::: > ::: bypassed and the next neuron plugs in.
::: >
::: > Can you cite these studies? I seem to remember this as an
::: urban legend
::: > stemming for the late 1990's, but I could be wrong.
:::
::: From "Fear and Loathing of the Help Menu: A Usability Test of
::: Online Help," _Technical Communication_, 2Q98, by Trevor Grayling:
::: "Although we would always like to see more data, usability
::: testing indicates that help information for Windows-style
::: applications frequently will be ignored if it relies on the
::: Help menu as the primary access method. Through their
::: observed behavior, test subjects displayed a highly negative
::: attitude toward help information provided in this manner.
::: On the other hand, test subjects did like and use dialog-box
::: help and pop-up help for tools. The hypothesis that we draw
::: from these two strikingly different behaviors is that users
::: respond to help information that is simultaneously context-
::: specific, easily available, obvious to invoke, useful, and
::: non-intrusive." (page 178, in the Conclusions.)
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