Using real-life troubleshooting interactions to inform self-assistance design

Abstract

Technical troubleshooting is a domain that has changed enormously in recent years. Instead of relying on visits from service personnel end users facing technical problems with machinery, for example computers and printers, can now seek assistance from systems that guide them toward an autonomous solution of the problem. Systems that can be offered to them are wide in their range, but typically fall either in the category of Expert Systems or searchable databases that can be queried with keyword searches. Both approaches present advantages and disadvantages in terms of flexibility to address different levels of user expertise and ease of maintenance. However, few studies explicitly address the issue of how best to design for a balance between guidance and user freedom in such systems. In the work reported here an office equipment manufacturer's call centre was studied in order to understand the mechanisms used when human agents guide users toward a resolution. The overall aim here is not to reproduce the agent behaviour in a system, but rather to identify which interactional building blocks such a system should have. These are assessed in relation to the existing online knowledge base resources offered by the same company in order to exemplify the kinds of issues designers need to attend to in this domain. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2005.