Assessing the Need for Printed and Online Documentation: A Study of Customer Preference and Use

Abstract

The document has become one of the few tangible deliverables of intellectual capital in an information age. As the value of business and technical communication has grown, the importance of designing information to meet customers' needs has increased. This article explores the design option of channel choice or medium selection (delivering information in print or electronic form) and reports the results of two studies that examine customers' preferences and use of printed manuals and online help, common documents used in the computer software industry. Through the past several years, many businesses have been anxious to move documentation online to reduce costs. However, research has not adequately addressed how users react to print versus online documentation or whether this approach is cost effective over time, taking into account customer satisfaction, repeat sales, and other business issues. The first study reports the results of a survey of 400 users of a word-processing application and their preferences and use of printed and online documentation. The second study uses an ethnographic approach, contextual inquiry (CI), to examine 18 subjects' use of printed and online documentation in context Results showed that users prefer different types of documentation for different types of tasks. The implications of these findings for business communication practice and research are discussed. Keywords: Computer Software Documentation, Printed Manuals, Online Help. Contextual Inquiry Customer Satisfaction, Information Value Formal written communication within businesses takes many forms: audit reports, shareholder statements, marketing and promotional material, annual reports, technical briefs, and white papers, as well as various forms of documentation that interface with products and services. The written document, whether delivered in a printed or online medium, is often essential to a product or service's success and ultimately to an organization's success. Recent research has tried to better assess and measure the value of communication (Mead, 1998; Redish, 1995). Some research has even shown how written documents and documentation have served to ensure the financial success of products or have positively impacted customer satisfaction (Bernhardt & McCulley, 2000; Smart, Madrigal, & Seawright, 1996; Smudde, 1995). In many instances, written documents are one of the few tangible deliverables of intellectual capital and knowledge work within organizations (Stewart, 1997). Assessing the value of documentation and other forms of communication helps managers and decision makers determine the appropriate allocation of assets and make strategic decisions that affect customer satisfaction. This strategic importance of information is underscored by an increased interest in the topic among business communicators, as reflected in a recent issue of The Journal of Business Communication (July 2000) focusing on the strategic value of communication, and by increased research and general interest in such topics as knowledge management (Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Szulanski, 1996). But the integral value of communication assumes its effective design and delivery, a design that genuinely meets the needs of an intended audience. As the importance of communication in business settings increases, the need for user-centered design also increases. Although ample advice and folk wisdom abound for effectively designing everything from business letters and reports to Web pages, little empirical evidenc e exists to help business communicators, information designers, and managers make strategic decisions about communication design. For example, a fundamental design choice of professional communicators involves the delivery medium of the message. The channel choice or medium-delivery option is crucial to the effective conveyance of messages, for as Locker (2000) observes, depending on the audience, . …