Document Design for An Interactive System

The user documentation supplied with interactive software is often poorly designed, due to inadequate preparation and lack of understanding of the user needs. More emphasis needs to be placed on user documentation, a vital part of the user-system interface throughout the period of system use. This report describes the document production process for an interactive system in which design decisions were based upon user input and software structure. The UNIXTm system and associated formatting software were used to develop modular documents that are easy to maintain and update. User response to the documentation was favorable.