This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Smart, K. L. Articles by DeTienne, K. B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Assessing the Need for Printed and Online Documentation: A Study of Customer Preference and Use

Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

Matthew E. Whiting

Microsoft Corporation

Kristen Bell DeTienne

Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

The document has become one of the few tangible deliverables of intellectual capi tal in an information age. As the value of business and technical communication has grown, the importance of designing information to meet customers' needs has increased. This article explores the design option of channel choice or medium selection (delivering information in print or electronic form) and reports the results of two studies that examine customers' preferences and use of printed man uals and online help, common documents used in the computer software industry. Through the past several years, many businesses have been anxious to move docu mentation online to reduce costs. However, research has not adequately addressed how users react to print versus online documentation or whether this approach is cost effective over time, taking into account customer satisfaction, repeat sales, and other business issues.

The first study reports the results of a survey of 400 users of a word-process ing application and their preferences and use of printed and online documenta tion. The second study uses an ethnographic approach, contextual inquiry (CI), to examine 18 subjects' use of printed and online documentation in context. Results showed that users prefer different types of documentation for different types of tasks. The implications of these findings for business communication practice and research are discussed

Key Words: Computer Software Documentation • Printed Manuals • Online Help • Contextual Inquiry • Customer Satisfaction • Information Value

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Pennell Book Reviews: User-Centered Technology: A Rhetorical Theory for Computers and Other Mundane Artifacts By Robert R. Johnson. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998. 195 pp Journal of Business Communication, April 1, 2002; 39(2): 276 - 280. [PDF]