Shaping thought through action : A study of the use and design of technical information

Sammanfattning: This dissertation deals with the design of technical information, such as a user manual for an industrial device, based on the searching and reading behaviour of process operators and maintenance technicians. Such industrial professionals, who use tools like measuring equipment, are sometimes unable to get the support they need from searching and reading in a text- and image-based tool manual in order to perform work tasks. If such a manual is the only available source of information, the user will either give up or attempt a workaround which ends up compromising the safety, quality, satisfaction, efficiency or effectiveness of the work task. Research within technical communication and human-computer interaction suggests how manuals can be designed to support users in accomplishing tasks. These suggestions are based upon studies of how users approach the use of tools and tool manuals, as well as how the design of procedural and declarative information supports users. However, there is limited knowledge about how users search and read manuals, and how manuals can be designed to support such searching and reading behaviour. This dissertation aims to contribute knowledge to technical communicators about how technical information can be designed to support industrial professionals in accomplishing their work tasks. An ethnographic research method was selected to study the behaviour exhibited by process operators and maintenance technicians’ while they search and read sources of information in order to perform work tasks with tools. The results show that some participants were unable to perform a task after searching and reading the manual. The empirical material has been analysed using Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. This was to gain a deeper understanding of how thought and language influence—and are influenced by—searching and reading behaviours, as well as the task behaviours during tool use. This dissertation's contribution is a design method for technical communicators that will enable them to support users in the shaping of mental representations about what results are possible to accomplish with a tool. The method involves the design of tangible tokens that signify the results and components of a tool. As the end-user arranges these symbols into a result model they are supported in their process of shaping a mental representation.