Marcus Gomez & Partners Sdn Bhd, Malaysia’s leading
technical and business writing specialist, has successfully developed and
released an on-board electronic help solution for devices based on the
Qtopia platform.
Qtopia is a graphical environment for Embedded Linux devices. It is used
with PDAs, mobile phones, web pads and other multimedia mobile computing
gadgets. However, there is no common delivery standard for help
documentation on this platform. Manufacturers typically provide user manuals
in PDF or plain text format, requiring users to scroll through hundreds of
pages to search for the help they need.
“The challenge was to develop an electronic help solution that could fit the
small viewable areas inherent to Qtopia devices and yet be minimalist enough
for embedded applications to support it,” says Marcus Gomez, the founder and
Principal Partner of Marcus Gomez & Partners. “The result of our research
and development is Konq/eHelp: a new service that converts a static help
document into an interactive help system that runs on the Konqueror Embedded
web browser.”
Part of the writing consultancy’s business philosophy is to stay close to
its customers and the market, and to create value wherever it can. When one
of the firm’s customers wanted to develop a help system for their
Qtopia-based device, the company turned to Marcus Gomez & Partners.
“We decided to give them something that would not only further enhance the
product’s usability and greatly benefit their customers, but also be easy to
maintain and update,” says Mr Gomez.
In collaboration with the customer’s engineers in Taiwan, the Konq/eHelp
system was successfully installed onto the product and proved to be an
instant hit among users.
“Users like the idea of knowing that if they need instructions, all they
have to do is tap, tap, tap,” explains Mr Gomez, refering to the
touch-screen interfaces used by some Qtopia-based devices.
Improving user experiences
“The key to improving the usability of any device is to make it easy to
use,” explains Mr Gomez. “One of the best ways to do this is to build
highly-accessible instructions for the product’s features and functionality
into the device itself. That way, users don’t have to spend hours figuring
out how to execute a certain function or be forced to carry print manuals
around with them.”
By leveraging Qtopia’s open source platform and in collaboration with
engineers in Taiwan, Marcus Gomez & Partners developed an electronic help
solution that met all the technical design requirements. The Konq/eHelp
system uses drop-down menus and navigation keys, an intuitive user interface
and an easily visualised hierarchical structure. Marcus Gomez & Partners
also plans to develop a search functionality that will make the system even
more user-friendly.
“We are also looking at how we can incorporate some of our other products
and services into the system,” says Mr Gomez. “VisualHelp, for example,
provides Flash-based animated help documentation. This would be particularly
useful for compound help instructions with complex inter-application
relationships. Enterprise-wide knowledge management initiatives may also be
augmented with the Konq/eHelp working as a foundation for feedback systems.”
For more information on Marcus Gomez & Partners’ technical and business
documentation solutions, call the firm’s BusinessMobile hotline at +6012 238
0508 or log on to www.marcusgomez.com.
Alternatively, inquiries may also be addressed to
thewritestuff@marcusgomez.com.
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Marcus Gomez & Partners Sdn Bhd provides technical and
business writing outsourcing solutions. Through enhancing product
documentation and improving organisational efficiency, we help companies
offer better user experiences to their customers and help them earn greater
corporate visibility and market share.
The mission of Marcus Gomez & Partners is to give ASEAN organisations
world-class documentation standards. Our Malaysian writers and consultants serve customers in Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Vietnam and other territories.
