Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in
Menu
Find a journal Publish with us
Search
Cart
Book cover

International Conference on Human-Centred Software Engineering

HCSE 2012: Human-Centered Software Engineering pp 267–274Cite as

  1. Home
  2. Human-Centered Software Engineering
  3. Conference paper
Assessing Use Complexity of Software: A Tool for Documentation Designers

Assessing Use Complexity of Software: A Tool for Documentation Designers

  • Brigit van Loggem19 
  • Conference paper
  • 2039 Accesses

  • 1 Citations

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNPSE,volume 7623)

Abstract

One way to support end users of software is to provide documentation materials such as user manuals and online Help. As not all software is equally difficult to master, documentation designers need to determine the quality and quantity of the information to be included in the user documentation. A first step towards this end would be to assess the complexity of the software from the user’s point of view. This paper suggests one approach to such an assessment, based on the idea of use complexity as a multi-dimensional construct. A consideration of width, depth and height of use complexity can help designers determine documentation requirements.

Keywords

  • user documentation
  • use complexity
  • documentation design

Download conference paper PDF

References

  1. Aiguier, M., Le Gall, P., Mabrouki, M.: A Formal Definition of Complex Software. In: Proceedings of the 2008 The Third International Conference on Software Engineering Advances, pp. 415–420. IEEE Computer Society (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Schriver, K.: Dynamics in document design. John Wiley & Sons, New York (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  3. van der Veer, G.C., van Vliet, H.: The Human-Computer Interface is the System: A Plea for a Poor Man’s HCI Component in Software Engineering Curricula. In: Ramsey, D., Bourque, P., Dupuis, R. (eds.) Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, pp. 276–286. IEEE Computer Society (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  4. van der Veer, G.C., Tauber, M.J., Waern, Y., van Muylwijk, B.: On the interaction between system and user characteristics. Behaviour & Information Technology 4, 289–308 (1985)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  5. Norman, D.A.: The Invisible Computer. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Norman, D.A.: Living with Complexity. The MIT Press, Cambridge (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Nadolski, R.J., Kirschner, P.A., van Merriënboer, J.G., Wöretshofer, J.: Development of an Instrument for Measuring the Complexity of Learning Tasks. Educational Research and Evaluation 11, 1–27 (2005)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  8. Kim, S., Soergel, D.: Selecting and measuring task characteristics as independent variables. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 42, n/a–n/a (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Moran, T.P.: The Command Language Grammar: a representation for the user interface of interactive computer systems. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 15, 3–50 (1981)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  10. Payne, S.J., Squibb, H.R., Howes, A.: The Nature of Device Models: The Yoked State Space Hypothesis and Some Experiments With Text Editors. Human-Computer Interaction 5, 415–444 (1990)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  11. Payne, S.J.: On Mental Models and Cognitive Artefacts. In: Rogers, Y., Rutherford, A., Bibby, P.A. (eds.) Models in the Mind: Theory, Perspective and Application. Academic Press, London (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Bødker, S.: Through the Interface – A Human Activity Approach to User Interface Design. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Nardi, B.A. (ed.): Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Mirel, B.: “Applied Constructivism” for User Documentation. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 12, 7–49 (1998)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  15. van Welie, M., van der Veer, G.C., Eliëns, A.: Breaking down Usability. In: Interact 1999, Edinburgh, Scotland, vol. 99, pp. 613–620 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Dix, A., Finlay, J., Abowd, G.D., Beale, R.: Human-Computer Interaction. Pearson (Prentice-Hall), Harlow (2004)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Open Universiteit, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT, Heerlen, The Netherlands

    Brigit van Loggem

Authors
  1. Brigit van Loggem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. IRIT, Université Paul Sabatier, France

    Marco Winckler

  2. Computer Science Department, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Str. 21, D-18051, Rostock, Germany

    Peter Forbrig

  3. ICS-IRIT, University Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 9, France

    Regina Bernhaupt

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

van Loggem, B. (2012). Assessing Use Complexity of Software: A Tool for Documentation Designers. In: Winckler, M., Forbrig, P., Bernhaupt, R. (eds) Human-Centered Software Engineering. HCSE 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7623. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34347-6_17

Download citation

  • .RIS
  • .ENW
  • .BIB
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34347-6_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34346-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34347-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Share this paper

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Search

Navigation

  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us

Discover content

  • Journals A-Z
  • Books A-Z

Publish with us

  • Publish your research
  • Open access publishing

Products and services

  • Our products
  • Librarians
  • Societies
  • Partners and advertisers

Our imprints

  • Springer
  • Nature Portfolio
  • BMC
  • Palgrave Macmillan
  • Apress
  • Your US state privacy rights
  • Accessibility statement
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Help and support

167.114.118.210

Not affiliated

Springer Nature

© 2023 Springer Nature