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An overview of on-line assistance: from on-line documentation to intelligent help and training

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Barbara Wasson  and
Sigmund Akselsen
Barbara Wasson
Affiliation:
Norwegian Telecom Research, PO Box 1156, N-9001, Tromsø, Norway
Sigmund Akselsen
Affiliation:
Norwegian Telecom Research, PO Box 1156, N-9001, Tromsø, Norway
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Abstract

An important aspect of any interactive computer system is its ease of use. On-line assistance is a major contributor to software usability. Conventional on-line assistance includes on-line documentation, or keyword access to textual help descriptions. More sophisticated on-line assistance includes intelligent help which provides immediate assistance for a specific problem, and intelligent training whose main goal is to support the user in learning about the system. These contemporary forms of intelligent assistance represent knowledge about the particular application, the user and the particular tasks the user is to perform. In addition, they possess inferencing capabilities to model the individual user's goals, plans, intentions and knowledge. This paper provides an overview of on-line assistance research, from empirical studies that attempt to determine the nature of effective assistance, to the design of intelligent on-line assistance systems capable of tailoring the assistance to the individual user. For readers interested in more details, recommendations for further reading in the related areas of advice-giving and intelligent help, intelligent user interfaces, critiquing, intelligent tutoring systems, and on-line documentation and hypertext are given.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 289 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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Further reading

Advice-giving and Intelligent Help

•Carroll, JM and McKendree, J, 1987. “Interface design issues for advice-giving expert systems” Communications of the ACM 30 14–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
•Hartley, JR and Smith, MJ, 1988. “Question answering and explanation giving in on-line help systems” In: Self, J (ed) Artificial Intelligence and Human Learning 338–360, Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
•Breuker, J (ed), 1990. EUROHELP: Developing Intelligent Help Systems Kopenhagen, Amsterdam/Manchester, Leeds, EC.Google Scholar

Critiquing

•Silverman, BG, 1992. “Survey of expert critiquing systems: practical and theoretical frontiers” Communications of the ACM 35 106–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
•Fischer, G, Lemke, ACMastaglio, T. and Morch, AI, 1991. “The role of critiquing in cooperative problem solving” ACM Transactions on information Systems 19 123–151.Google Scholar

Intelligent user interfaces

•Rissland, EL, 1984. “Ingredients of intelligent user interfaces” Int. J. Man-Machine Studies 21 377–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
•Sullivan, JW, and Tyler, SW (eds), 1991. Intelligent User Interfaces Addison-Wesley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Intelligent tutoring systems

•Wenger, E, 1987. Artificial intelligence and tutoring systems: Computational and cognitive approaches to the communication of knowledge Morgan Kaufmann.Google Scholar
•Polson, MC and Richardson, JJ (eds), 1988. Foundations of Intelligent Tutoring Systems Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar

On-line documentation and hypertext

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•Conklin, J, 1988. “Hypertext: An introduction and survey” In: Grief, I (ed) Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: A book of readings 423–475, Morgan Kaufmann.Google Scholar

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