Microsoft User Manual Critique

John Doe

ENG/221

June 14, 2010

Instructor Name

Microsoft User Manual Critique

The focus of this paper will be to evaluate the Microsoft Word 2007 manual based on the criteria defined in Comparative User-focused Evaluation of User Guides: A case study (2007). The Microsoft Word 2007 manual is evaluated based on the following criteria: (a) attractiveness, (b) practicality, (c) simplicity, and (d) efficiency. Each of the four criteria are assigned a point value of between zero through five, zero meaning none of the criteria was not meet and five meaning the criteria was completely meet.

Attractiveness

A user manual should be attractive to entice the user to use it (Ganier, 2007). Attractiveness is subjective, a matter of personal esthetics, it is difficult to quantify attractiveness as it is defined differently by individuals. For the purposes of evaluating the attractiveness of the Microsoft Word 2007 manual three criteria as defined in Design 101 (2007) are used:

* Proximity: is related information groped together

* Contrast: do the text and headings contrast with one another

* Repetition: are design elements repeated throughout the manual

Proximity

To evaluate if related information is properly grouped in the Microsoft Word 2007 manual four main topics: (a) Activating Word, (b) Headers and footers, (c) Creating specific documents, and (d) Page numbers were selected at random from the table of contents. The main topics were checked to ensure that the sub-topics contained only information related to the main topic. In addition each sub-topic should be related to other sub-topics listed.

Activating Word. The Activating Word main topic contains three sub-topics: Activate Microsoft Office programs, Activate or renew your Microsoft Office subscription from Office Live, and Read the Microsoft Software License Terms. The main topic and all three sub-topics are related to licensing Microsoft Office products. The... [continues]

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