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61 A060 Proposals for More Effective Online Doc. 50
SHARE NO. SESSION NO. SESSION TITLE ATTENDANCE to type "explain fortran," and more experienced users to
enter "remind fortran." A problem with this method is
Hllm~n Frt~r_nr~ LJoan Winters SLA that it requires people to learn more about HELP than
PROJECT SESSION CHAIRMAN INST.CODE they otherwise would. I suspect that many people would
continue to use whichever command thev first became fam-
Bin 97, SLAC, P.O."Box 4349, Stanford CA 94305 (415)854-3300 x3333 iliar with, even when it was no longer the best choice
SESSION CHAIRMAN'S COMPANY, ADDRESS, and PHONE NUMBER for them or for their circumstances.
Your HELP processor can assist you in finding out how peo-
User Experience with Online HELP ple are using it by keeping records of every request for help.
At Cornell I look through histograms of such records every month.
by Stacy Jackson, CUN When I see the same error cropping up over and over, I know it
isn't the users' fault - it's the HELP system which needs help.
What can I do about it?
First, I try to provide a redundancy of paths to the same
My experience with online documentation is in writing information. Cornell's HELP processor, written by Larry Chace,
online help and news. I maintain a large database for the help allows me to cross-reference a particular item by as many key-
system in CMS at Cornell University. words as I like. So when I find a common error I can add a
The problem I've found with writing online documentation pointer to the correct HELP information, if I can identify what
isn't writing it per se; you write it the same way you write the user was trying to ask. Common errors include:
anything technical - as clearly and succinctly as you can. The