Usability trends in an online help system: User testing on three releases of help for a visual programming language

Robert Krull; Janet Friauf; Johel Brown-Grant; Angela Eaton; Cara Comtois; Stephanie Daniels; Laurie Davis; Gerald Jackson; Chris Prell; Silka Pokorny; Heather Sadler; Michelle Wallace; Kathleen Wanner

Usability trends in an online help system: User testing on three releases of help for a visual programming language

Robert Krull, Janet Friauf, Johel Brown-Grant, Angela Eaton, Cara Comtois, Stephanie Daniels, Laurie Davis, Gerald Jackson, Chris Prell, Silka Pokorny, Heather Sadler, Michelle Wallace, Kathleen Wanner

English

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of three phases of user testing on the online help systems for successive releases of a visual programming language. The help systems changed over time, but never were overwhelmingly successful in enabling users to complete tasks. Two consistent problems we identified were that the organization of help information was not clear to users and that help topics were expressed in product-specific vocabulary rather than user vocabulary.

Original language	English
Pages	19-26
Number of pages	8
State	Published - 2001
Event	International Professional Communication Conference - Santa Fe, NM, United States Duration: Oct 24 2001 → Oct 27 2001

Conference

Conference	International Professional Communication Conference
Country/Territory	United States
City	Santa Fe, NM
Period	10/24/01 → 10/27/01

Keywords

Online Help
Usability
Visual Programming

Cite this

Krull, R., Friauf, J., Brown-Grant, J., Eaton, A., Comtois, C., Daniels, S., Davis, L., Jackson, G., Prell, C., Pokorny, S., Sadler, H., Wallace, M., & Wanner, K. (2001). Usability trends in an online help system: User testing on three releases of help for a visual programming language. 19-26. Paper presented at International Professional Communication Conference, Santa Fe, NM, United States.

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title = "Usability trends in an online help system: User testing on three releases of help for a visual programming language",

abstract = "This paper reports on the results of three phases of user testing on the online help systems for successive releases of a visual programming language. The help systems changed over time, but never were overwhelmingly successful in enabling users to complete tasks. Two consistent problems we identified were that the organization of help information was not clear to users and that help topics were expressed in product-specific vocabulary rather than user vocabulary.",

keywords = "Online Help, Usability, Visual Programming",

author = "Robert Krull and Janet Friauf and Johel Brown-Grant and Angela Eaton and Cara Comtois and Stephanie Daniels and Laurie Davis and Gerald Jackson and Chris Prell and Silka Pokorny and Heather Sadler and Michelle Wallace and Kathleen Wanner",

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Krull, R, Friauf, J, Brown-Grant, J, Eaton, A, Comtois, C, Daniels, S, Davis, L, Jackson, G, Prell, C, Pokorny, S, Sadler, H, Wallace, M & Wanner, K 2001, 'Usability trends in an online help system: User testing on three releases of help for a visual programming language', Paper presented at International Professional Communication Conference, Santa Fe, NM, United States, 10/24/01 - 10/27/01 pp. 19-26.

TY - CONF

T1 - Usability trends in an online help system

AU - Krull, Robert

AU - Friauf, Janet

AU - Brown-Grant, Johel

AU - Eaton, Angela

AU - Comtois, Cara

AU - Daniels, Stephanie

AU - Davis, Laurie

AU - Jackson, Gerald

AU - Prell, Chris

AU - Pokorny, Silka

AU - Sadler, Heather

AU - Wallace, Michelle

AU - Wanner, Kathleen

PY - 2001

Y1 - 2001

N2 - This paper reports on the results of three phases of user testing on the online help systems for successive releases of a visual programming language. The help systems changed over time, but never were overwhelmingly successful in enabling users to complete tasks. Two consistent problems we identified were that the organization of help information was not clear to users and that help topics were expressed in product-specific vocabulary rather than user vocabulary.

AB - This paper reports on the results of three phases of user testing on the online help systems for successive releases of a visual programming language. The help systems changed over time, but never were overwhelmingly successful in enabling users to complete tasks. Two consistent problems we identified were that the organization of help information was not clear to users and that help topics were expressed in product-specific vocabulary rather than user vocabulary.

KW - Online Help

KW - Usability

KW - Visual Programming

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=20244386056&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Paper

AN - SCOPUS:20244386056

SP - 19

EP - 26

Y2 - 24 October 2001 through 27 October 2001

ER -

Usability trends in an online help system: User testing on three releases of help for a visual programming language

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