Actuate’s August 2009 Open Source Survey reported users see community-based Help as one of the key benefits of adopting open source software. The benefits of adoption for the 1,500 respondents were: Community-based Help (33.2%) Access to source code (72.6%) Built on open platforms (63.9%) Scalability (57.2%) Flexibility (54.3%) Not locked into Microsoft (40.9%) Standards-based technology… Read more »
Tag: user assistance
Nintendo patents new Help/User Assistance system
Various computer games magazines are reporting news of a Nintendo patent for providing user assistance to players during a game. The patent describes “Demo Play”, which is intended to keep casual players interested in complex games in a way that doesn’t conflict with hardcore gamers’ requirements. Advanced players can play normally, while less experienced players can get the occasional helping hand. Hints will appear… Read more »
Is search dying? Your manual within 140 characters?
Internet Psychologist Graham Jones wrote an article last week, in which he stated, search is dying, and is being replaced by sharing information socially. “So worried is Microsoft about Google that they haven’t realised that Google is not their real competition any more. It is the likes of Twitter and Ecademy…Google already knows this. Much… Read more »
“It’s so intuitive, it doesn’t need an instruction manual.”
I told someone yesterday that there was one piece of technology that was so intuitive it didn’t need an instruction manual. I was talking about the traditional fixed wire telephone. It turns out I was wrong. A quick search on YouTube revealed there was a major education campaign in the 1920s and 30s, instructing the… Read more »
Lessons for technical communicators from the telecommunications sector
It’s often useful to look at the economic and technological pressures in other industries, to see if the trends emerging there are relevant to the technical communications/publications sector. In recent Blogs, we’ve covered the issues emerging in education, but the telecommunications industry might also provide some useful insights. Lee Dryburgh, organiser of the Emerging Communications Conference, has been interviewed… Read more »