Performance Support for the Next Millenium: a model for rapidly changing technologies in a global. economy

Consumers of popular desktop software have been amused, appalled, occasionally assisted, and most likely infuriated by a Planning Wizard, an Office Assistant, or other manifestation of an interventionist help apparition. If not, then they have encountered a noninterventionist form of assistance, such as a standard context-sensitive help file. These are the manifestations of years of developments in computing where the ultimate objective is to create systems that people can use with ease. Yet we are far from achieving the goal. Learning technologists, systems developers, human factors engineers, and others have focused on creating the precise support that a user (performer) needs at just the right time. The problem is seductive, as a significant gap always seems to exist between the features offered by software and a performer's ability to harness them. Those responsible for developing either the core applications or the ancillary elements of support share a common goal ease-of-use but opinions and techniques for achieving the goal vary widely.