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
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;
Conference_Titel :
Professional Communication Conference, 2001. IPCC 2001. Proceedings. IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Sante Fe, NM
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7209-3
DOI :
10.1109/IPCC.2001.971547
