Experimental comparison of two help systems for Microsoft Excel according to usability criteria

This contribution describes an experimental investigation comparing two Help systems for Microsoft Excel, firstly Microsoft's built-in Help system, and secondly an online Help system newly developed by atsolute. Although both Help systems structure the help topics hierarchically, they differ in the manner in which the information is presented. The experimental comparison described here analyses which type of representation used in the help systems best meets the criteria of usability.