Assessment of the minimalist approach to computer user documentation

Meij van der, Hans and Lazonder, Ard W. (1993) Assessment of the minimalist approach to computer user documentation. Interacting with Computers, 5 (4). pp. 355-370. ISSN 0953-5438

Preview

PDF
1211Kb

Abstract:	The minimalist approach (Carroll, 1990a) advocates the development of a radically different type of manual when compared to a conventional one. For example, the manual should proceed almost directly to procedural skills development rather than building a conceptual model first. It ought to focus on authentic tasks practised in context, as opposed to mock exercises and isolated practice. In addition, it should stimulate users to exploit their knowledge and thinking, as opposed to imposing the writer's view and discussing everything that users should see or know. In the first part of the paper the construction of a tutorial based on the minimalist principles is described. A parallel is drawn with constructivism with which minimalism shares important notions of instruction. In the second part, an experiment is described in which the minimal manual was tested against a conventional one. The outcome favoured the new manual. For example, minimal manual users completed about 50% more tasks successfully on a performance test and displayed significantly more self-reliance (e.g. more self-initiated error-recoveries, and fewer manual consultations).
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 1993 Elsevier Science
Faculty:	Behavioural Sciences (BS)
Research Group:	Instructional Technology (IST)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/26433
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0953-5438(93)90001-A
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Metis ID: 135084