English

User Manual Evaluation

Learning PowerPoint 2008

A well-prepared user manual should contain certain elements to be successful. It must:

* Address the manual's organization

* Provide proper layout of each section

* Also provide the use of visuals, and written instructions.

This review considers these elements in the effectiveness of the Microsoft PowerPoint Online Manual.

Upon opening the online user manual for Microsoft PowerPoint, I immediately noticed the road map for learning PowerPoint. The roadmap was broken up into seven sections each detailing what each section will cover with supporting links and visuals to help guide you in the application.

Once I accessed the user manual, what were immediately evident were the icons that represented support features. These section icons represented online video, help topics, online course, and 123 help topics. This made a more powerful learning experience for me accessing the manual. I have noticed that the use of icons in other user manuals has been very effective and almost reminds me of the “breadcrumb” technique. Leaving a trail throughout the manual to help the reader follow along and helps the user experience be positive.

The PowerPoint user manual effectively manages section organization, a good use of white space, text is short and concise for each section header, and font choice provides a very user friendly and legible document. The background used is a solid white; each section title is in bold blue color to separate from the sublevel, helping highlight them. The use of different font sizes help differentiate the sections as well. The different headings use a more prominent font size and each sublevel uses a smaller font. The writers of the manual used a Sans Serif font, which is more legible than Serif fonts. The use of text, graphics and icons helped the use of whitespace as to not have too much or too little.

These instructions are developed for the novice and...