Online Support Systems: Tutorials, Documentation, and Help   

Online support systems help computer users achieve goals and accomplish tasks within the contexts of their primary work. Although this definition is extremely broad and includes a wide range of digital forms—from low-end interface elements to high-end hypermedia applications, in this chapter we generally focus on planning, designing, and testing mid-range systems: tutorials, documentation, and help, regardless of their virtual instantiation. We discuss electronic rather than print-based forms because organizations increasingly deliver user support online for a variety of reasons: to reduce development and production costs; to anticipate distributed computing systems and other environments in which users rarely have easy access to print-based materials; and to benefit from the sophisticated searching and interactive capabilities that online environments can provide. In cases where print-based support is still necessary (for example, in packing instructions and in some troubleshooting areas), processes for constructing these documents can be extrapolated from the discussion that follows.

Selber, Stuart A., Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Brad Mehlenbacher. North Carolina State University (1997). Articles>Documentation>EPSS