SGER: Toward More Helpful Help

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Software applications, large-scale web sites, and computing devices like mobile phones continue to increase in complexity as new features are added almost daily. Thus, help systems are needed and extremely important to enable users, novice users in particular, to cope with current interfaces. Despite their importance, studies continue to show that existing help systems are not very helpful at assisting users in accomplishing their tasks. One issue that is not reflected in these studies is the fact that help systems are also difficult to develop. Innovations are clearly needed in both the design and development of help systems. In this project, the PI will explore the solution space for improving the usability and maintainability of help systems, in order to lay an empirical foundation for future research that will result in innovative, usable, and maintainable help systems. In particular, the PI will characterize the state-of-the-art in help systems, examine the use and development of help systems, and test the technological feasibility of two help system innovations: (1) a help-by-demonstration system which enables users to demonstrate their help needs and receive the appropriate help; and (2) a help search engine that harvests help content from various sources (such as online help, web sites, and discussion groups), organizes intelligently the content, and enables users to search for help on specific problems. Help use by users with visual and other impairments, in addition to novice and experienced users, will be examined. This project will produce invaluable data on current help system use and development in the desktop, Web, and mobile device domains. These findings are needed to inform the design of more usable and maintainable help system solutions. The activities will also provide evidence of users' and developers' perceptions, and the technological feasibility, of the two proposed help system solutions. There is a major risk involved with changing the way that people use (and possibly create) help, and this preliminary work will minimize this risk. By the completion of this research, the innovations that are most feasible from all perspectives (user, developer, and technology) will be documented. Broader Impacts. The existence of unusable and unmanageable help systems is a pervasive problem that affects users and developers universally. Thus, this project will benefit a broad population of help system users and developers. The research will include a user population that is typically excluded from studies on help use-namely, users with disabilities. Hence, findings will address the needs of users with diverse abilities and computer experience. Study results will be disseminated via journal articles, conference papers, and online, so that other help system researchers and developers can benefit from the findings.