ABSTRACT
The purpose of the user manual is to assist the user in effectively operating a system. This objective is complicated by the wide diversity of user skills, and user tasks. The quality of a user manual is affected not only by the level of effort exerted by the system developer in writing the manual, but also by the degree of matching between the user manual and the user's needs. The documentation writer must supply both effort and direction in writing the user manual. This paper addresses the direction issue.
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Index Terms
- User manuals: What does the user really need?
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