Study shows people use search to learn as well as to find facts

Researchers at Penn State University are claiming people don’t just use Search Engines to find facts – mostly, they’re using them to learn. Could this influence the way in which e-learning courseware is developed in the future? The researchers sought to discover the cognitive processes underlying searching. They examined the search habits of 72 participants while… Read more »

Whither wikis?

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones reports on Wikipedia’s challenges: Will the online encyclopaedia that has become the first destination for millions of web users searching information end up withering away, as its worker bees lose interest in keeping it nourished? That’s the question raised by a study of Wikipedia editors carried out by a Spanish academic… Read more »

Documentation as flash cards

Here is a nice use of flash cards as a way of providing user documentation. In this case, it’s the legal rights of New York tenants: Designer and artist Candy Change collaborated with non-profit group “Tenants & Neighbors” to develop and produce a boxed set of 30 flash cards on tenants’ rights. The flash cards translate New… Read more »

Google seeks to increase uptake of Google Wave by introducing witty user documentation

(For a list of all the other documentation and user assistance available for using Google Wave, see our post “Google Wave – A case study in 21st Century User Assistance“) Techcrunch is reporting that Google has just published a demonstration document showing what you can do with Google Wave. It uses the American Declaration of Independence… Read more »