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RE: TOC article in INTERCOM -- things that made me go "HUH??"
Subject:RE: TOC article in INTERCOM -- things that made me go "HUH??" From:Mike West <Mike -dot- West -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 16 Dec 2002 10:36:10 +1100
> From: Gordon Meyer
> On Saturday, December 14, 2002, at 07:59 PM, Michael West wrote:
>
> > Um, well, the corollary part of the argument that you
> > seem to be agreeing with was that users "never
> > use" TOCs. So which is it? You can't have it both ways.
>
> Ah yes, nothing like setting up a straw man to prove your point. The
> argument isn't that TOCs aren't used, its that they aren't
> very useful
> and that searching is a better way to locate information. The rest of
> my message supported that point.
No straw man there. The message you were agreeing with
contains the following statements:
(1)
>>IMHO, I think most TOCs in online help
>>are unusable, unused, and a waste of
>>time.
(2)
>>Included in my presentation was this quote
>>from Jared Spool, principal and
>>founder of User Interface Engineering (www.uiw.com):
>>"In 15 years of testing help systems, not one test subject has used the
>>TOC."
The point of both statements is that users DO NOT USE
TOCs (that's what "unused" means).
Your post claims to agree, but then notes that you
have observed users using them.
So which is it? Do they use them or not?
--
Mike W
Melbourne
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