HCI chp: 11
- 1. Group Members 1. Muzamil Altaf 2. M.Arqam Awais 3. Basit Riaz 4. Muhammad Aslam 5. MuhammadAfshan
- 2. Issues different types of support at different times implementation and presentation both important all need careful design Types of user support quick reference: 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. 2
- 3. 3 – task specific help: 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. – full explanation: The more experienced or inquisitive user may require a full explanation of a tool or command to enable him to understand it more fully. This explanation will almost certainly include information that the user does not need at that time. – tutorial: The fourth type of support required by users is tutorial help. This is particularly aimed at new users of a tool and provides step-by-step instruction (perhaps by working through examples) of how to use the tool.
- 4. 4 • Provided by help and documentation – help - problem-oriented and specific – documentation - system-oriented and general – same design principles apply to both Requirements • Availability – continuous access concurrent to main application • Accuracy and completeness – help matches and covers actual system behaviour
- 5. Consistency between different parts of the help system and paper documentation Robustness correct error handling and predictable behaviour Flexibility allows user to interact in a way appropriate to experience and task Unobtrusiveness does not prevent the user continuing with work 5
- 6. Command assistance User requests help on particular command e.g., UNIX man, DOS help Good for quick reference Assumes user knows what to look for Command prompts Provide information about correct usage when an error occurs Good for simple syntactic errors Also assumes knowledge of the command 6
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- 8. 8In unix we’d use “man –k” to find commands related to a keyword
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- 10. The system should offer help on correct syntax when a user gets the command syntax incorrect In WIMP systems, the menus provide a degree of command prompting and error avoidance First, the menus (and toolbars/buttons) identify available commands Second, the parameters of a command are set out by the dialog of the command itself Third, any file parameters can usually be achieved by browsing to a file 10
- 11. A GUI can prevent overt syntax errors through the dialog structure Of course, this doesn’t mean the users can’t still make errors in the sense of not achieving what they wanted (and possibly not knowing that they don’t have what they wanted) 11
- 12. Context sensitive help help request interpreted according to context in which it occurs. e.g. tooltips On-line tutorials user works through basics of application in a test environment can be useful but are often inflexible On-line documentation paper documentation is made available on computer continually available in common medium can be difficult to browse hypertext used to support browsing 12
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- 15. wizards task specific tool leads the user through task, step by step, using user’s answers to specific questions Most often seen for installation procedures useful for safe completion of complex or infrequent tasks constrained task execution so limited flexibility must allow user to go back assistants monitor user behaviour and offer contextual advice must be under user control e.g. XP smart tags 15
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- 18. 18 Let you know the system has a series of options available with respect to the most recent action (e.g., after Edit Paste)