Designing Future Scenarios for Electronic User Manuals

This paper addresses ways of applying new perspectives on the electronic documentation of technical literature. It draws on inspirations from a research project aiming at creating a vision for technical literature that is electronically accessible. The goal was to investigate the potential of electronic user manuals and database user manual production. We will illustrate how a variety of scenarios were helpful to add on intensive ethnographic field studies, helping developers coordinate design action and reflection. The design and implementation of electronic user manuals is beyond the scope of this paper.