Commentary 8 Documentation creates a coherent overview of software, good or bad. Documentation's Holistic Role Whitney Quesenbery Cognetics Corporation Princeton Junction, NJ 08550 whitneyq@cognetics.com In his essay, Winograd presents an interesting point of view on the changing role of documentation and the nature of the interaction with today's software. His focus on various modes of user assistance as a form of conversation emphasizes the relationships between the people at either end of the software equation. Traditionally, documentation has been used to mediate between people attempting to complete a task and the (often obscure) user interfaces they were required to use. The conceptual model of the software rarely matched the user's mental model (or even previous process) for completing a task. The documentation and training often provided the only clear and coherent overview of the full scope of the software. In this context, an insistence on complete, authoritative, structured information makes sense. Wingrad points out that the new technologies from the Internet to cell phones are moving us back into a world with more possibilities for direct conversation and information available on demand. But there is a price to be paid for expanding the sphere of communication in this
End of preview. The entire article is 4 pages. To view the full-text, please rent this article to continue.
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/documentation-s-holistic-role-SPFfRiQzb0
Welcome to DeepDyve! Rent Premier Research Articles and Save Up to 90%
Documentation's holistic role
Quesenbery, Whitney
Follow ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation
, Volume 23 (4)
Association for Computing Machinery – Nov 1, 1999
More Info
More Like This Article
View All dataSource[]=actageo&dataSource[]=aspet&dataSource[]=aaos&dataSource[]=aacc&dataSource[]=aacr&dataSource[]=aea&dataSource[]=aip&dataSource[]=ajnr&dataSource[]=ams&dataSource[]=aps_physical&dataSource[]=appi_book&dataSource[]=appi_journal&dataSource[]=apha&dataSource[]=asip&dataSource[]=asm&dataSource[]=asn&dataSource[]=aspb&dataSource[]=avs&dataSource[]=annual_reviews&dataSource[]=arxiv&dataSource[]=acm&dataSource[]=berghahn&dataSource[]=cabi&dataSource[]=clinical_trials&dataSource[]=dailymed&dataSource[]=degruyter&dataSource[]=du_press&dataSource[]=esa&dataSource[]=eu_press&dataSource[]=elsevier&dataSource[]=emerald&dataSource[]=ejtr&dataSource[]=emea&dataSource[]=epo&dataSource[]=faseb&dataSource[]=gsa&dataSource[]=health_affairs&dataSource[]=hindawi&dataSource[]=imanager&dataSource[]=imedpub&dataSource[]=informa_healthcare&dataSource[]=informs&dataSource[]=iop&dataSource[]=iucr&dataSource[]=iospress&dataSource[]=jbjs&dataSource[]=leftcoast&dataSource[]=lu_press&dataSource[]=mesharpe&dataSource[]=mary_ann_liebert&dataSource[]=medline&dataSource[]=mit_press&dataSource[]=nature&dataSource[]=oxford&dataSource[]=pier_professional&dataSource[]=pnas&dataSource[]=portlandpress&dataSource[]=psyc_articles&dataSource[]=psyc_books&dataSource[]=psyc_critiques&dataSource[]=plos_journal&dataSource[]=pubmed_central&dataSource[]=rsna&dataSource[]=rockefeller&dataSource[]=rcn&dataSource[]=ria&dataSource[]=rsc&dataSource[]=sage&dataSource[]=spie&dataSource[]=springer_journal&dataSource[]=springer&dataSource[]=taylor_francis&dataSource[]=aps&dataSource[]=the_scientist&dataSource[]=uc_press&dataSource[]=uspto_abstract&dataSource[]=wiley&dataSource[]=pct
© 2012 DeepDyve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
