ABSTRACT
An important challenge for universal usability is to bridge the gap between what users know and what they need to know to successfully interact with a computer system (Shneiderman, 2000). Different users have different needs and skills, especially for Web information systems (WISs; Isakowitz, Bieber, & Vitali, 1998). WISs often serve an international user community aiding people with various backgrounds. Thus, there is a strong need to provide support for the whole range of users. Ben Shneiderman identified online help and customer service as two im portant approaches in dealing with this challenge and called for evaluations and design guidelines (Shneiderman, 2000). Earlier, Carroll and McKendree (1987) argued that empirical studies on advice-giving systems should be done. Online help means online support for the user tasks that the WIS is intended for. We see the term customer service as the specialization of online help to the task of online shopping. In this chapter, we consider online help and use the terms user support, assistance, and help interchangeably.
