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Learning from technical documents: the role of intermodal referring expressions
1Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Human Factors
|August 4, 2006
Summary
Icons, not indexes, improved the efficiency of technical instructions by better connecting verbal steps to visual aids. This enhances user understanding of multimedia documents.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Cognitive Psychology
- Technical Communication
Background:
- Technical manuals often combine text and illustrations to aid user learning.
- Effective integration of information from text and visuals is crucial for user comprehension.
- Intermodal referring expressions link textual instructions to accompanying illustrations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how different intermodal referring expressions impact the efficiency of instructions for use.
- To compare the effectiveness of indexes versus icons in connecting text and illustrations.
Main Methods:
- An experiment was conducted with 104 participants.
- The study compared two types of referring expressions: indexes and icons.
- Participants used procedural texts with either indexes or icons to interact with a device.
Main Results:
- The condition using icons resulted in the most efficient use of the device.
- Icons facilitated a more effective connection between verbal instructions and visual illustrations.
Conclusions:
- Learning from multimedia documents is enhanced when verbal instructions are effectively linked to illustrations.
- Considering the ergonomic design of cross-media referring expressions can improve the efficacy of technical documentation.