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Human Factors and Behavioral Science : The UNIX™ Writer's Workbench Software: Results of a Field Study

1983; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Volume: 62; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/j.1538-7305.1983.tb03521.x

2376-7154

Patricia S. Gingrich,

Usability and User Interface Design

This paper describes a study in which the UNIX™ Writer's Workbench software was used by writers to analyze and revise the texts they wrote. For ten weeks, two groups of writers were observed: those for whom writing was their principal activity, and others for whom writing was only one of their responsibilities. These participants used the Writer's Workbench programs to produce documents related to their jobs. The results indicate that both types of writers can use the programs without changing their accustomed modes of operating. Writers found the programs helpful; they liked the immediate feedback the programs provided and the detailed suggestions on how to revise their texts. In addition, when editing prepared texts, writers found more errors using Writer's Workbench output than when they had no output available. Finally, participants thought they spent less time editing their documents when they used the Writer's Workbench programs, although total time spent on writing and editing did not change.