helping the help: a history of libraries and usability through help documentation
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Helping the help: a history of libraries and usability through help documentation. Ilana Barnes. Why do libraries matter?. Because we provide research instruction no on else does. Because we are a dominant access point for the public for internet - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Helping the help: a history of libraries and usability through help documentation
Ilana Barnes
Why do libraries matter?
• Because we provide research instruction no on else does.
• Because we are a dominant access point for the public for internet
• Because it is one of our missions to “provide the highest level of service to all library users through appropriate and usefully organized resources” – ALA Code of Conduct
Why does library help matter for UX?
• A vital intersection between online help documentation, research instruction and user research
• Hundred of libraries across the country implementing similar models- tremendous opportunity
Critical Questions Moving Forward
No single model exists for - describing characteristics of help from both
content provider and user's perspective.- identifying any gap between existing help
content and user needs. - helping identify appropriate representational
format for user needs in different context.
Critical Questions Moving Forward
• How do we contextualize help for those that avoid reading help documentation?
• How do deal with expert and novice users?• How do we continue to create systems that
allow us to reuse the content from our multiple customer service attitudes?
• How do we tell if it worked?