TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: WinHelp as Training From:"Burns, Nancy" <nburns -at- BREAULT -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 9 Mar 1998 16:53:12 -0700
In a belated response to Tim Altom's posting of 2/28 on online
Help being a task aid vs. a teaching aid or both, I agree that
users typically access Help from an application to "get over a
momentary hump" as Tim says. They need procedures.
I've only skimmed Jean Pratt's article in the current STC
Journal, but have a slightly different perspective on her
suggestion of designing online help systems from an instructional
design perspective: If we look at Help as being one of possibly
several components comprising online documentation, there's
definitely room for adding some of the other components Pratt
discusses - feedback to confirm the user's actions, access to
sub-tasks (redundant instructions), links to practice, and access
to theoretical foundations - without comprising task-oriented
Help. Online Help can include links to these components rather
than incorporating all their information. If I understand
correctly, these components are known as embedded performance
support systems (EPSS).
Nancy Burns
nburns -at- breault -dot- com
-----Original Message <clipped>-----
From: Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Date: Saturday, February 28, 1998 1:28 PM
Subject: WinHelp as Training
:Got my STC Journal the other day and read the article "Where is
the
:Instruction in Online Help Systems?" The author maintains that
adding
:instructional design to online help files can help the user.
:
:It started me thinking about the argument I've had and heard
with other
:help designers over the years...should help or paper manuals be
seen as
:teaching aids, or as task assistance? Can they be both?
:
:I'll say at the top that I don't think they can be both, not
ideally. You
:can, of course, straddle the worlds, but it reduces the
effectiveness of
:both sides. The article's author, Jean Pratt, makes some good
arguments,
:but I don't know that she's convinced me that online help should
be
:considered in any way to be a training aid. In my view, users
don't access
:help to learn; they access help to get over a momentary hump. I
can see
:putting a tutorial in the help file, but isolated so that it
isn't diluted.
:
:
