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Re: Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help? (take II)

Subject: Re: Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help? (take II)
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: "Geoff Hart" <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, "Char James-Tanny" <charjtf -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 09:32:26 -0700

In the last online help project I was involved with we did a focus survey
of our company's users, and discovered that the majority of them did
not think that TOCs or indexes "worked well." What they wanted was
context-sensitive help that provided task-based assistance from the
current UI window or dialog. Essentially, "Clippy" but without the cute cartoon image. When asked how they searched for information when it was not presented by the UI in this manner, the most common reply was "we call tech support."

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- From: "Geoff Hart" <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>

Really. Dumb. Decision. Indexes work well because they organize information conceptually and by context. A good index provides entries such as "Print: troubleshooting font problems" beside "Print: configuring a printer" so you can compare the two entries and guess which one is most likely to answer questions. The keywords themselves are merely the superficial evidence of the thought process that went into defining and presenting these alternatives.

Search engines cannot provide that context unless it's designed into the text being searched; the keywords must not only be present, but there must be meta-information that accompanies them to provide the context for the keyword. Currently, that is the single biggest flaw in all the search engines I've used. Defining better keywords won't by itself help improve searches: the same time required to choose and test keywords would be better spent creating an index.

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References:
Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help?: From: Barbara Vega
Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help?: From: Geoff Hart
Re: Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help?: From: Char James-Tanny
Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help? (take II): From: Geoff Hart

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