Re: Introducing users to new screen

[Mike Stockman <stockman -at- jagunet -dot- com>]

On 08/20/00 3:15 AM, Michael West (mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- com) wrote:

>I must add that I am baffled by this comment:
>
>> the reference-oriented users 
>> generally understood the topic 
>> involved and just wanted 
>> to see how the software did 
>> something the user already knew about. 
>
>Why would someone who doesn't need help open the 
>help file? They either need help with a task or they 
>don't. Why would they want to know "how the software 
>did something"? 

I was attempting to describe the user who knows the concepts behind a 
task and simply needs to know where that function is kept in the 
software. Someone who doesn't need help with the steps may still need 
help with the user interface.

An example for our own field might be approaching a new word-processing 
program. We all know how to set up paragraph styles and use them; on 
sitting down to a new word processor, we might check out the UI reference 
(or the context-sensitive help) to see which menu command gets to the 
style information in this particular word processor, or we might look at 
a screen reference to see the options available in this program, with a 
quick summary. I doubt anyone familiar with the subject (style sheets in 
word processors) would need a step-by-step task to get the job done.

Users experienced in the subject matter may not need to be walked through 
the steps involved... they may simply need to know the organization, 
layout, and terminology of *this particular* program to get the task 
done, and that's where a UI reference section is vastly better than 
making them wade through tasks.

Hope this clears things up...

----->Mike

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