A framework to provide integrated online documentation

ABSTRACT

As the variety of software users is increasing widely, online help systems are required to provide appropriate information for users. It means the help documents are suited to users' knowledge and the context in users' accesses. This paper addresses how online help systems can meet these requirements, and proposes a design framework called SOF Scenario-based Online help Framework).In SOF, we introduce our proposed scenario-based design of help documents. The scenario is a meta-model of the help document and contains information about the structure and behavior of the document. Therefore, the scenario-based design of help documents can achieve context-sensitive interaction between the system and a user depending on his/her knowledge level.This paper also demonstrates that SOF can be used to meet these demands placed upon online help systems, and includes a prototype system named Fit (Flexible Information Tailor). SOF makes it easy to develop adaptive online help systems.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Training, help, and documentation

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Frameworks

  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.5 On-line Information Services
          Subjects: Web-based services

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Performance

Keywords:
document meta-model, online help system design framework, scenario-based design