The document has become one of the few tangible deliverables of intellectual capi
tal in an information age. As the value of business and technical communication
has grown, the importance of designing information to meet customers' needs has
increased. This article explores the design option of channel choice or medium
selection (delivering information in print or electronic form) and reports the
results of two studies that examine customers' preferences and use of printed man
uals and online help, common documents used in the computer software industry.
Through the past several years, many businesses have been anxious to move docu
mentation online to reduce costs. However, research has not adequately addressed
how users react to print versus online documentation or whether this approach is
cost effective over time, taking into account customer satisfaction, repeat sales,
and other business issues.
The first study reports the results of a survey of 400 users of a word-process
ing application and their preferences and use of printed and online documenta
tion. The second study uses an ethnographic approach, contextual inquiry (CI), to
examine 18 subjects' use of printed and online documentation in context. Results
showed that users prefer different types of documentation for different types of
tasks. The implications of these findings for business communication practice and
research are discussed
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