Your documentation team has developed an online help support for instant messaging client. You are hiring a usability testing firm to evaluate the online help and recommend improvements. Prepare a contract that specifies how you want the usability test to be performed and what reports you would like to receive. Your schedule gives them one week to prepare the study, one week to run it, plus one week to write up the final report. In your contract, specify the details of your requirements, including such information as the number of subjects required, test plans and the types of reports.

Contract: We need tests on the following metrics: perceived speed of the system, rate of errors of the system, and time to learn of the system. When testing the perceived speed, we need to know a quantitative measure that the user believes each action takes after performing them. We’d like to see this measure for all tasks. For testing rate of errors, we need all different type of errors reported together and separate. Also, we need the time to learn each task concretely.

Describe the difference between reading on paper and reading on a computer display. Be sure to list at least three disadvantages for each method.

Defend the use of on-line communities for user assistance. Ensure your argument is well-rounded by pointing out both the weaknesses and strengths.

Describe the role user documentation and online help play in the lifecycle of a piece of software. Decide when these help materials should be created in the software design cycle.

State some guidelines for writing for the web, particularly in the context of online help.