This paper presents the perspective of a user system knowledge continuum which recasts traditional user system components (user interface, context-sensitive help, completion aids, manuals, training) as interrelated knowledge components tasked with appropriately distributing required knowledge between user and system. It suggests that maximizing user system effectiveness is best viewed as optimization of a set of such knowledge components. The paper relies upon a case study showing this perspective at work in the development of APT - Applications Productivity Tool™, an integrated software environment for industrial automation applications.
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