ShowMeHow: Translating User Interface Instructions Between Similar Applications

Many people learn how to use complex authoring applications through tutorials. However, user interfaces for authoring tools differ between versions, platforms, and competing products, limiting the utility of tutorials. Our goal is to make tutorials more useful by enabling users to repurpose tutorials between similar applications. We introduce UI translation interfaces which enable users to locate commands in one application using the interface language of another application. Our end-user tool, ShowMeHow, demonstrates two interaction techniques to accomplish translations: 1) direct manipulation of interface façades and 2) text search for commands using the vocabulary of another application. We discuss tools needed to construct the translation maps that enable these techniques. An initial study (n=12) shows that users can locate unfamiliar commands twice as fast with interface façades. A second study shows that ShowMeHow enables users to work through tutorials written for one application in another application. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. Graphical user interfaces. General terms: Design, Human Factors, Documentation