atw: Re: Research on when customers need or want online help or manuals?
- From: "Stuart Burnfield" <slb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 09:57:51 +0800
There never was an ‘intuitive design’ for a complex system that
sprang fully formed from the brow of the developers. It takes user and
task analysis, iterative design and usability testing. But some of
your people are innocent souls who believe that it can be had for
free, just by having good intentions, because they have a magic wand
that makes things 'intuitive'. I wonder if these people would buy a
new car that didn't need to have any testing because it was 'designed
to be safe'.
You might find these two books useful:
Cost-justifying Usability: An Update for an Internet Age
Randolph G Bias, Deborah J. Mayhew
Morgan Kaufman, 2005 - 660 pages
User and Task Analysis for Interface Design
JoAnn T. Hackos, Janice C. Redish
Wiley, 1998 - 512 pages
The first might help with your management. But then again it might not
:^/
The second will help _you _when management eventually notices that
hitting the product with a stick that has the word 'intuitive'
scratched on it mysteriously fails to reduce support calls.
Good luck!
--- Stuart
----- Original Message -----
Thanks for your thoughtful replies. I’m faced with an organization
that wants to justify everything & because they haven’t invested in
great Help, they believe they don’t need it.
I found some great ROI information on the UK Cherryleaf site. Someone
had done a study showing how many less support calls you get if your
Help really helps!
http://www.cherryleaf.com/consultancy-services-in-user-assistance-and-documentation/support-call-cost-reduction-calculator/
[1]
But management wants more! Yes, they consider the manuals as
‘extras’ and some of the most foolish have bought into the notion
that no matter how complex the software, there is an ‘intuitive
design’ that will make the user have a ‘Eureka’ moment… J
Which isn’t true for complex systems…
Links:
------
[1]
http://www.cherryleaf.com/consultancy-services-in-user-assistance-and-documentation/support-call-cost-reduction-calculator/
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