I don't know of any studies to date but it is easy to find out on many web applications just by looking at page referenced logs to see what parts of an application as call to a Help message is made (if designed that way). Knowing where a user asks for help can help you build an improved experience; to know where your design works and needs no assistance or where users constantly have problems.
In the case of an in-car system I'd suggest that the initial start-up has a training loop that goes through and lets the user try each of the voice-activated systems - I know as a renter of cars who has to constantly have to re-learn GPS systems at each city, a simple run-down of the system would be useful (helpful ;-). On the nature of Help, to finish that sentence, "Users don't use help... unless they need it". As people get used to design conventions in an application they rely on memory and use help less and less. The problem is that some conventions outlast their usefulness. I've always looked on building Help as a back-up to be used only when needed. As an interface designer there are always some things I want a User to do that are not immediately obvious and don't use these commonly recognised task patterns, so a little bit of help is there as a back-up. I also write Help files to help improve the task flow of a page; I often find writing a task in a way that allows a User to fulfill that task also gives me a health check on the interactional design of a task. Finally, I've also had developers say "users don't use help" as an excuse to cut the Help to make a tight deadline as Help is often the last thing that gets built into the product ;-) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41773 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
