• DocumentCode
    376801
  • Title

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

  • Author

    Krull, Robert ; Friauf, Janet ; Brown-Grant, Johel ; Eaton, Angela

  • Author_Institution
    Rensselaer Polytech. Inst., Troy, NY, USA
  • fYear
    2001
  • fDate
    2001
  • Firstpage
    19
  • Lastpage
    26
  • 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
    help systems; user interfaces; visual languages; visual programming; vocabulary; online help system; product-specific vocabulary; usability trends; user testing; visual programming language; Automatic programming; Computer interfaces; Computer languages; Electronic equipment testing; Professional communication; Programming profession; System testing; Usability; User interfaces; Vocabulary;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Professional Communication Conference, 2001. IPCC 2001. Proceedings. IEEE International
  • Conference_Location
    Sante Fe, NM
  • Print_ISBN
    0-7803-7209-3
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/IPCC.2001.971547
  • Filename
    971547