online help system design based on the situated action theory
Nowadays, different forms of assistance are available in interactive computer-based systems. However, current online help systems, which correspond to the main components of online assistance, often are unsuccessful in providing support to users. The help that is offered is not well-suited to the problem the users encounter and to the particular needs they have. This paper reports on a new approach to online help system design based on the situated action theory. The approach has been implemented in a system called AIDE. The system has been evaluated with 15 subjects having to do programming tasks in C++, and compared to the online help available in the programming environment they were using and on the Web. The main results show that the assistance provided by AIDE was three times as effective as the two other forms of assistance to help in defining the problem, and twice as effective to help in resolving it. Results also show that with the AIDE system, students had much less recourse to human assistance when trying to complete their tasks.
online help situated action mixed-initiative interactions contextual help