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Heuristic Evaluation of Online Documentation using Qualitative Indicators

by Shrikant Vitthal Salve, Ganesh D. Bhutkar
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International Journal of Computer Applications
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Volume 36 - Number 10
Year of Publication: 2011
Authors: Shrikant Vitthal Salve, Ganesh D. Bhutkar
10.5120/4524-6146

Shrikant Vitthal Salve, Ganesh D. Bhutkar . Heuristic Evaluation of Online Documentation using Qualitative Indicators. International Journal of Computer Applications. 36, 10 ( December 2011), 1-10. DOI=10.5120/4524-6146

@article{ 10.5120/4524-6146,
author = { Shrikant Vitthal Salve, Ganesh D. Bhutkar },
title = { Heuristic Evaluation of Online Documentation using Qualitative Indicators },
journal = { International Journal of Computer Applications },
issue_date = { December 2011 },
volume = { 36 },
number = { 10 },
month = { December },
year = { 2011 },
issn = { 0975-8887 },
pages = { 1-10 },
numpages = {9},
url = { https://ijcaonline.org/archives/volume36/number10/4524-6146/ },
doi = { 10.5120/4524-6146 },
publisher = {Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA},
address = {New York, USA}
}
%0 Journal Article
%1 2024-02-06T20:22:47.657052+05:30
%A Shrikant Vitthal Salve
%A Ganesh D. Bhutkar
%T Heuristic Evaluation of Online Documentation using Qualitative Indicators
%J International Journal of Computer Applications
%@ 0975-8887
%V 36
%N 10
%P 1-10
%D 2011
%I Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Abstract

This paper presents a heuristic evaluation method for online documentation to identify specific usability problems, which are observed with such documentation. We have used qualitative indicators for all heuristics, which are summed up to provide a usability index (with base 100). This index quantifies the goodness of online documentation under consideration. We have considered both types of online documents - online tutorial and online help. A tremendous increase in volume and contents of online documentation make its usability extremely vital for helping users in efficient usage and learning. The heuristic evaluation has been performed by three different usability evaluators for two more online documents to ensure the reliability of heuristics proposed in this paper. The specialized set of heuristics and the objectively defined usability indicators are found more reliable in identifying related usability problems. The usability index calculated is useful for comparison of quality of online documents. A tool is implemented which calculates the usability index and provides the analytical graphical output to the users so that they will know the comparative details about usability of the online documents.

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Index Terms

Computer Science
Information Sciences

Keywords

Usability Online documentation Heuristic evaluation Qualitative indicators Usability index Online help Online tutorial

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