The design and evaluation of online help for Unix EMACS: capturing the user in menu design

J. Palmer; T. Duffy; K. Gomoll; T. Gomoll; J. Richards-Palmquist; J.A. Trumble

doi:10.1109/47.6920

IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Mar 1988

The design and evaluation of online help for Unix EMACS: capturing the user in menu design

J. Palmer ; T. Duffy ; K. Gomoll ; T. Gomoll ; J. Richards-Palmquist Carnegie Mellon University ; J.A. Trumble

Abstract

The card-sort technique and cluster analysis were used for determining an effective organization for a help menu in Unix EMACS. Similarity data were gathered for with a card-sorting task using EMACS commands, and a hierarchical cluster analysis of the data was performed. The results indicate that differences among novices, intermediates, and experts appear with computer-based concepts such as windows and buffers, but that the sorts are more similar than they are different. It is argued that cluster analysis may aid designers in determining a functional organization, but that in the domain of this study, this organization may not help users bridge the mapping from real world tasks to computer tasks.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>

Journal: IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published: 1988-03-01
DOI: 10.1109/47.6920
CompPile: Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access: Closed
Topics: assessment digital rhetoric
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Walker (1987)

Issues and strategies for online documentation

IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

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The design and evaluation of online help for Unix EMACS: capturing the user in menu design

Abstract

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