Notes from 46th International STC Conference
Cincinnati, Ohio, May 16-19, 1999

When Worlds Collide

Jared M. Spool
User Interface Engineering, Inc., North Andover, MA

Spool is an erudite programmer with an ebullient -- sometimes almost Woody Allenesque -- presentation style. He certainly kept folks awake in the difficult final Wednesday time slot!

Session Description: Learn how people really use Help, Print, and the Web based on research by User Interface Engineering. Are certain types of information better in certain media? What have we learned by watching users work with Help, Print, and the Web?

• Study of users revealed the manner in which people really use the Web--for Help, for research, and to print from.
• Many users do not know the difference between a dialogue box and a context-sensitive online Help box.
• People do like to print! It is smart to make your Web pages print-friendly.
• Many users still cling to paper documentation and simply do not use the online help.
• Help appears to be most suitable to quick-explanation type of requests; for more extensive problem-solving, the manuals see more use.
• Never underestimate the inability/unwillingness of your user to figure out how to use the online Help!
• The "Dummies" series of books on new software releases are often written by the same technical communicators who produce the shrink-wrapped documentation... ironically, the practical, hands-on approach of the "Dummies" series is exactly the standard that should be worked to on the official documentation.
• Physical location ties in... if you're away from your desk, online help may not be practical. On the other hand, if you're on a plane, using a laptop in cramped quarters, a physical manual may be very inconvenient.
• What is Help good for?
   
• If there is something on the screen they just don't understand, Help can provide a rapid answer.
• If there is a function in the application that they know is there, but they can't find it in any of the pulldown menus, Help can locate it.
• The first thing the user consults is the last thing the doc specialists develop -- the index. Thus, it is extremely important to design and test the index first, and then update it later after all the text is complete. If the user can't locate what he/she wants in the index, the documentation is pretty much useless.
• Graying out of menu items: reminds the speaker of a 6-year-old hollering "Nonny-nonny boo-boo" (viz., I have functionality, and you can't have it). A direct approach to the phenomenon of "grayout" in the online Help would be much appreciated by users (viz., "Here's why you can't use it, and here's what you have to do so you can use it.")
• Users frequently search for the names for things.
• HTML Help provides a huge dialogue box that obscures most of the material it is supposed to explain.
• Print density on screen is much less than on page; therefore people read much more slowly online than they do on paper.
• Unsatisfactory experience with paper documentation has soured many users on using it, to the point where many of them will spin their wheels needlessly trying to solve a problem that receives lucid and explicit coverage in the documentation.
• The thickness of a manual is readily apparent -- and can be daunting -- whereas the depth of a Web site is not evident from the surface.
• One user printed out everything he found on the Web-based or online HELP twice -- once as a backup! -- he was that fearful that things he found on the Web he would never be able to find again.
• A great aside as a recovery from a joke the audience did not pick up on quickly enough: "Humor is more of a wave than a particle; it tends to travel slower through denser material."
• On the Web, people actually seek out and read tutorials (amazing!), on every subject imaginable. He cited several examples, from mining to brain aneurysms. Through clear writing and simple graphic, including animation, the Web coaxes users into far more patience than they will ever show with conventional documentation. By its very nature, the Web is extremely well suited to self-instruction. It is thus very well suited for content-sensitive Help.
• A poorly designed Web documentation site is worse than none at all, because many users will persist in searches, only to become extremely frustrated.