User Support

Overview

Assumption/IDEALLY: If a system is properly designed, it should be completely easy to use, thus users will require little or no help/training. However, this is far from true even for the best-designed systems available. A helpful approach is to assume that users will require assistance at various times and design help into the system.

Types of Assistance

Types of assistance vary and depend on many factors, including users’ familiarity with the system and the tasks they are trying to accomplish. Basic requirements for assistance include being available but unobtrusive, accurate and robust, and consistent and flexible.

Types of Support

Types of Support:

• Quick reference
• Task-specific help
• Full explanation
• Tutorial

Types of Support:

1. Quick reference
   • Reminder of details; assumes familiarity & has used before
   • Example: telnet [-8] [-#] [L] [-a] [-d] [-e char] [-l user] [-n tracefile] [-r] [host-name [port]]
2. Task-specific help
   • Addresses problems encountered with particular tasks
   • Focused on what is currently being done
3. Full explanation
   • For more experienced and inquisitive users
   • Likely to include information not needed immediately
   • Example: Unix man command
4. Tutorial
   • Aimed at new users
   • Provides step-by-step instruction on how to use a tool

• Four types are complementary and required at different points based on the user’s experience with the system.
• Users want definitions, examples, known errors, error recovery information, command options, accelerators.
• Difference between help systems and documentation: Help system is problem-oriented & specific; Documentation is system-oriented & generic.

Requirements of User Support

• Availability
• Accuracy and Completeness
• Consistency
• Robustness
• Flexibility
• Unobtrusiveness

Approaches to User Support

• Command Assistance
• Command Prompts
• Context-Sensitive Help
• On-line Tutorials
• On-line Documentation
• Wizards
• Assistants

Intelligent - Type of Help: Adaptive Help Systems

• Use knowledge of the user, task, domain, and instruction to provide help adapted to user’s needs.

• Examples: domain-specific expert systems, intelligent tutoring systems

• Challenges: Knowledge requirements are considerable, data on interactions are difficult to interpret, issue of control, scope of adaptation.

Designing User Support Systems

• User support is integral to system design.
• Concentrate on content and context of help rather than technological issues.
• Focus on presentation and implementation issues.

Designing User Support: Presentation issues

1. How is help requested?
   • Decision on how the user will access help: Command, button, function, separate application
2. How is help displayed?
   • Decision on how the user will view the help: New window, whole screen or split screen, pop-up box, hint icons
3. Effective presentation of help
   • Help screens and documentation should be designed similarly to the interface.
   • Focus on effective writing and presentation.

Designing User Support: Implementation issues

1. Is help
   • Operating system command
   • Meta command
   • Application
2. Structure of help data
   • Single file
   • File hierarchy
   • Database
3. What resources are available?
   • Screen space
   • Memory capacity
   • Speed
4. Issues
   • Flexibility and extensibility
   • Hard copy
   • Browsing

Examples of User Support

• Shopee Help
• Cimbclicks.com.my Help

Summary

• User support is an integral part of system design.
• Users require different types of help, and support facilities should cater to different requirements and user types.