Experimental Evaluation of Tools for Teaching the ZOG Frame Editor

摘要

This paper focuses on ZOG, a rapid-response, menu-selection, software system intended as a general-purpose interface to a computer. ZOG databases are networks of screen-sized displays called frames. ZOG's frame and net editor (ZED) combines coventional text-editing facilities with facilities specialized to the network character of the database. One of the design goals for ZOG is that ZOG be relatively self-contained in terms of instruction on the use of ZOG and ZED. This paper compares two ZOG-based tools for teaching naive users to edit with ZED: an on-line (net) users' manual and an off-line users' manual (derived from the on-line manual). The resultss indicate that (1) off-line and on-line manual users take about the same time to complete a standard instruction sequence, but (2) off-line users use ZED more effectively at the end of the sequence.