Putting service and support documentation online - avoiding the perils and pitfalls: investigation of user requirements

The study of user requirements for online documentation was handled in three parts. The first part consisted of a series of site visits with customers from a wide variety of company size and geographic location. The interviews focused on customer issues with the current service and support documentation and their future needs. The second part consisted of a benchmark study of the ten publications organizations producing service documentation. The third part consisted of a review of the paper and online documentation produced by a majority of the ten organizations. The results of all three parts of the study indicate that customer requirements are not being met by the current mix of online and paper documentation offered