Technical Communicators Shun Research, Yet Research Results Are Applicable In Practice  

Like their colleagues who produce paper documents, few help developers are aware of the research that has been done on topics relevant to the information products they design. This article describes four recent studies that are relevant to help developers, and suggests how help developers can use the knowledge gained from those studies to improve the performance support systems they build. The fact, however, is that there is a lot of good research that addresses topics of concern to practitioners in our field. Moreover, the best research reports always include implications for practice. Finally, if we ignore research results, we won’t learn what we need to know so that we can stop spending all our time putting out fires.

Hayhoe, George F. George Hayhoe Associates (2001). Articles>Documentation>Research