Help Design Evaluation Questionnaire (HDEQ)
Overview
This instrument may be used to evaluate the design of any online
help system. "Online help" in this context is a computer program
that provides job-aiding information on the use of the
application software. This evaluation instrument assumes that
the online help information is accurate and complete.
Eight design features of a help system are evaluated with this
instrument:
- support for problem representation
- ease of access to help
- ease of topic selection
- ease of scanning the help text
- appropriateness of the type of help information presented
- comprehensibility of the content
- ease of navigation within the help system
- ease of tranferring information from help to the application
The rating of each of these features is based on the amount of
cognitive, perceptual, and motor effort that each segment of the
system imposes on the user, for example, how much work and time
it takes to access the help system.
The questions focus on the weaknesses of the help system. The
higher the raw score, the poorer the help system. We convert
the raw score for each design feature into a "Component Score"
that is positively related to quality; that is, a high Component
Score indicates that the particular component of the help is
well designed. The "System Score" is the average of the
Component Scores, providing an overall rating of the help
system. Each component is weighted equally in calculating the
System Score.
Reference
- Duffy, T. M., Palmer, J. E., Mehlenbacher, B. (1992):
- Online Help: Design and Evaluation. Ablex, Norwood, NJ.
