Commentary on: "Little Machines: Understanding Users Understanding Interfaces"
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/586569.586573
  access restricted (by the publisher) to members/subscribers/customers only
  peer-reviewed

Haramundanis, Kathy
Journal of Computer Documentation
2002

Abstract:

Online materials, as Johnson-Eilola points out, too often provide speed but neither learning nor conceptual information. Minimum information is often provided in help systems because there are no resources to provide more. But the result is often a system that, without any conceptual information, provides little more than help that is so obvious that it ceases to be helpful. Even when resources are constrained, help systems should, at a minimum, refer to external sources that can help users with important concepts behind the tasks they are trying to perform.