(BQ) Part 2 book “Human–Computer interaction” has contents: User support, cognitive models, socio-organizational issues and stakeholder requirements, communication and collaboration models, task analysis, modeling rich interaction, . And other contents. | USER SUPPORT O V E RV I E W n Users have different requirements for support at different times. n User support should be: – available but unobtrusive – accurate and robust – consistent and flexible. n User support comes in a number of styles: – command-based methods – context-sensitive help – tutorial help – online documentation – wizards and assistants – adaptive help. n Design of user support must take account of: – presentation issues – implementation issues. 11 396 Chapter 11 n User support INTRODUCTION There is often an implicit assumption that if an interactive system is properly designed it will be completely intuitive to use and the user will require little or no help or training. This may be a grand ideal but it is far from true with even the bestdesigned systems currently available. It is even perhaps an unhelpful ideal: a computer is a complex piece of equipment – what other such equipment do we expect people to use without instruction or help? A more helpful approach is to assume that the user will require assistance at various times and design this help into the system. The type of assistance users require varies and is dependent on many factors: their familiarity with the system, the job they are trying to do, and so on. There are four main types of assistance that users require: n n n n quick reference task-specific help full explanation tutorial. Quick reference is used primarily as a reminder to the user of the details of tools he is basically familiar with and has used before. It may, for example, be used to find a particular command option, or to remind the user of the syntax of the command. Task-specific help is required when the user has encountered a problem in performing a particular task or when he is uncertain how to apply the tool to his particular problem. The help that is offered is directly related to what is being done. The more experienced or inquisitive user may require a full explanation of a tool or .
