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An online help framework for web applications

Published: 22 October 2007 Publication History

Abstract

As the number of users using web-based applications increases, online help systems are required to provide appropriate information in multiple formats and accesses. Since users are dealing with various applications simultaneously so as to complete objectives and make daily decisions, it is necessary to provide anytime, anywhere help or tutorials. However, developing effective and efficient help systems on behalf of users is costly. As geographically distributed and multilingual users with minimal training or interruption have increased significantly, it has become a requirement to restructure help systems. In order to meet users' requirements and business challenges, it is necessary to restructure help systems to deliver training, documentation, and online help while taking into account nonfunctional requirements such as usability, time-to-market, quality and maintainability. In this paper we try to overcome such technical and economic constraints through single sourcing and content reuse, embrace as many users as possible by HTML-based help systems, and beef up help contents through unified and structural help system design. In addition, network pipe method for user feedback data collection and statistical analysis has been suggested as user feedback automation.

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Cited By

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  • (2014)Usability EngineeringComputing Handbook, Third Edition10.1201/b16768-38(32-1-32-22)Online publication date: May-2014
  • (2010)Understanding meta-communication in an inclusive scenarioProceedings of the 2010 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/1774088.1774343(1213-1218)Online publication date: 22-Mar-2010

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
SIGDOC '07: Proceedings of the 25th annual ACM international conference on Design of communication
October 2007
286 pages
ISBN:9781595935885
DOI:10.1145/1297144
  • General Chair:
  • David Novick,
  • Program Chair:
  • Clay Spinuzzi
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Publication History

Published: 22 October 2007

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  1. help systems
  2. online help framework
  3. reuse

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View all
  • (2014)Usability EngineeringComputing Handbook, Third Edition10.1201/b16768-38(32-1-32-22)Online publication date: May-2014
  • (2010)Understanding meta-communication in an inclusive scenarioProceedings of the 2010 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/1774088.1774343(1213-1218)Online publication date: 22-Mar-2010

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