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Chapter Eight HCI

The document discusses different approaches to designing user support systems. It covers requirements of user support, approaches like command assistance, prompts, context sensitive help and tutorials. It also discusses adaptive help systems and considerations for designing user support systems.

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nuredinmaru650
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16 views

Chapter Eight HCI

The document discusses different approaches to designing user support systems. It covers requirements of user support, approaches like command assistance, prompts, context sensitive help and tutorials. It also discusses adaptive help systems and considerations for designing user support systems.

Uploaded by

nuredinmaru650
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 8:User support

• Introduction

• Requirements of user support

• Approaches to support

• Adaptive help systems

• Designing user support systems


User support

• There is often an implicit assumption properly designed interactive system can be


used by anybody with little or no help or training, but it is far from true. So,
designing help into an interactive system is important.

• User support should be designed integrally with the system- it is not an `add on’.

• Types of user support: quick reference, task specific help, full explanation, tutorial

• User Supported are provided by help (problem-oriented) and documentation


(system-oriented )
Requirements of User Support

• Availability:- continuous access concurrent to main application

• Accuracy and completeness:-help matches and covers actual system behavior

• Consistency:- between different parts of the help system and paper documentation.

• Robustness:- correct error handling and predictable behavior

• Flexibility:- allows user to interact in a way appropriate to experience and task

• Unobtrusiveness:-does not prevent the user continuing with work


Approaches to user support

1. 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

2. Command prompts

• Provide information about correct usage when an error occurs

• Good for simple syntactic errors

• Also assumes knowledge of the command


Approaches to user support…

3. Context sensitive help

• help request interpreted according to context in which it occurs. e.g. tooltips

4. On-line tutorials

• user works through basics of application in a test environment.

• can be useful but are often in flexible.

5. 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.


Approaches to user support…
6. Wizards and assistants

Wizards - task specific tool leads the user through task, step by step, using user’s
answers to specific questions.

• Example: format a resumé using Microsoft Word

• useful for safe completion of complex or infrequent tasks

• constrained task execution so limited flexibility

• must allow user to go back


Assistants - monitor user behavior and offer contextual advice
• can be irritating e.g. MS paperclip
• must be under user control e.g. MSWord smart tags
Adaptive Help Systems

In any large or complex computer system,

• users will be familiar with a subset of the available functionality

• different users will have different needs and levels of understanding

Adaptive help systems attempt to address these problems

Use knowledge of the context, individual user, task, domain and instruction to
provide help adapted to user's needs.
Adaptive Help Systems…

Problems

• knowledge requirements considerable

• who has control of the interaction? Should the help system take an active role?

• what should be adapted?

• what is the scope of the adaptation?


Design user support system
User support should concentrate on content and context of help rather than technological
issues.

Design of user support must take account of

1. presentation issues

• How is help requested?

e.g. Command, button, function(on/off) and separate application

• How is help displayed?

e.g. new window, whole screen or split screen, pop-up box and hint icons

2. Implementation issues: what resources are available?

Screen space, memory capacity and speed


Types of support

• Quick reference :- remainder of details; assumes familiarity.

e.g. command syntax, options

• Task specific help:-addresses problems with particular tasks and found on what is
currently being done

• Full explanation:-for more experienced and inquisitive users.

e.g. unix man command

• Tutorial :aimed at new users

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