HCI Links - Help

Version of 8/24/04 - by RPF -

Many of the links here are gathered from a variety of sources and need to be updated or simply deleted. That is a work in progress, starting in the Fall of 2004. The links below do not open new windows, so a tabbed browser such as Firefox can be useful in exploring the collection. The titles alone give little indication of "what lies beyond", so annotating the titles is also useful project (or collection of projects).

General

• End-User Training: An Empirical Study Comparing On-Line Practice Methods
• A Comparison of Still, Animated, or Non-Illustrated On-Line Help with Written or Spoken Instructions in a Graphical User Interface
• The Zephyr Help Instance: Promoting Ongoing Activity in a CSCW System
• The Role of Display Tools in Implementing Effective Online Help Systems
• Apple Guide: A Case Study in User-Aided Design of Online Help
• Comparison of Display Methods in Online Help
• End-user training: an empirical study comparing on-line practice methods
• A Comparison of Still, Animated, or Nonillustrated On-Line Help with Written or Spoken Instructions in a Graphical User Interface
• "The Effectiveness of Online Help Systems: Text Only, Animated Images Only, and Integrated Interactive" student research paper
• Conceptually Adapted Hypertext For Learning
• Designing Effective Multimedia Presentations
• Design Space Analysis as "Training Wheels" in a Framework for Learning User Interface Design
• Interactive Video with Multimedia Toolbook
• Help options in Visual Basic

Guidelines on Developing Help

• 20 Tips for Better Documentation
• Guidelines for Writing Accessible On line Help

Help Development Software

• Microsoft HTML Help
• Work Write: User Assistance from WinHelp to the Web
• Developing Help for Mac OS X
• RoboHelp Commercial Help Development System
• EC-software's commercial system

Autonomous Help

• Agentland.com

Example Help Systems

• Earthlink's live chat tech support
• Creative web designs tech support chat room
• Apple's Developer Connection
• Yahoo's help for Geocities with support for natural language questions