Re: User Preferences -- Help Please

[Jan Bates <bates -at- KINGFISH -dot- ATT -dot- COM>]

Eric,

My main problem with the on-line documentation that I have
seen so far is the lack of a sufficiently dense index.  Someone
out there obviously thinks that something in between a TOC and
an index is called for in on-line documentation (as opposed to
context-sensitive on-line help, which is a different animal).

I use Frame's on-line documentation quite a bit, but am always
frustrated that there isn't a complete index.

Jan
--------------------------------------------------------------

       Hi, gang,
       I'm looking for some pointers or advice:
       My Masters thesis will present and evaluate the results
       of a survey of computer user documentation preferences,
       particularly the online vs. paper question. My
       employer, Computing and Information Services at
       Oklahoma State University, is sponsoring the research
       and very interested in the outcome.

       Background:
       For financial reasons, moving completely away from
       paper documentation and into online documentation,
       probably available over the Internet, would be a
       prudent move. I think that we can effectively address
       usability issues in whichever medium (or both) we
       choose. My main concern, and the focus of my thesis, is
       what sort of documentation our users would prefer.
       Although I have found many resources addressing
       usability issues, I've yet to find anything about other
       studies addressing user preferences.

       Rationale:
       I realize that what people like and what they need or
       can effectively use are two completely different
       things, but for political reasons, knowing how much
       we're going to irritate our users if we go exclusively
       online would be useful. I can certainly hypothesize
       what the users (faculty and high-level administration,
       1700 people in all) will say, but that isn't quite good
       enough.

       Problem:
       I've been working on a literature review and have found
       very little. I've looked in the obvious places--ITCC
       Proceedings, Tech Comm, IEEE Transactions, Tech Comm
       Quarterly, ACM CHI Proceedings, and a couple of
       publications dedicated to computing in higher
       education. I've also traipsed through the obvious (to
       me, at least) databases: ERIC, CompEndex, PsychLit,
       MLA, ABI Inform, Dissertation Abstracts, the ACM
       Computing Index, etc. I got the Proceedings and Tech
       Comm abstracts from clark.net and searched them. I also
       know about the HCI resources on the 'Net at BGSU, but
       haven't yet found a good way to search them.

       Results so far:
       * Useful information about conducting surveys.
       * A number of resources about usability which
       sometimes, tangentially, address user preferences.
       * Several useful resources about online documentation
       in general, and a couple comparing online and paper in
       terms of quality and usability.
       * Nothing directly applicable.

       Plea:
       If any of you know of any studies addressing user
       preferences in documentation, I'd really appreciate a
       pointer to the source. Unpublished or under-development
       projects would also be useful, as would surveys which
       might be too focused or audience-specific to be
       generally applicable.

       If anyone has any feelings about this topic to discuss
       on the list, that would be great too. I'd enjoy hearing
       other people's views on the topic.

       Thanks in advance for your help,
       Eric
       ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu