Introduction 1 Introduction to Book-Review Commentaries Leigh Kades, Book Commentaries Editor Hyperion Software his issue's commentaries focus on the book Online Help:Design and Evaluation (Ablex, 260 pp., $26.50), a collaborative effort by Thomas M. Duffy, James E. Palmer, and Brad Mehlenbacher. Their book was first published in 1992, and offers pragmatic insight to both academics and practitioners into the process of creating online help. During the design and develoment stages, I often found this book enabled me to forecast problems that might arise. It can help other readers as well to become online help trouble-shooters, a valuable skill in today's climate that creates a constant rush to be the first to get the new products out the door, leaving little, if any, time to go back and make fixes. In Online Help... the authors cover a wide range of topics concerning online help. These include their definition of online help, in-depth interviews with practitioners who have designed online help systems, and audience analysis tools. The book's chapter titles summarize the topics: Online Help in Context Medium of Delivery and the Design Process A Task Model for Online Help Designing Interactive Help Systems Understanding the Design Process An Overview
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