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User manuals: What does the user really need?

Published:22 January 1982Publication History

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.

References

  1. 1.Chafin, R. L. DSN Human Factors Project Focus Group Report. Contract No. 955013. Task Order No. RD-142. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. California Institute of TechnologyGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.Chafin, R. L. "A Model for the Control Mode Man-Computer Interface Dialogue". 17th Annual Conference on Manual Control, UCLA Los Angeles, California. January 16-18, 1981.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.Shneiderman, B. Software Psychology Human Factors in Computer and Information System. Winthrop Publishers, Inc. Cambridge, Mass. 1980. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

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  1. User manuals: What does the user really need?

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      SIGDOC '82: Proceedings of the 1st annual international conference on Systems documentation
      January 1982
      155 pages
      ISBN:089791080X
      DOI:10.1145/800065

      Copyright © 1982 ACM

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 22 January 1982

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