Toward an ethos of rationale: commentary on “The Role of Balloon Help” by David K. Farkas

Professor Farkas' article address itself to a single interface technique. As he makes clear, the Balloon Help technique fills a fairly narrow role, which is nonetheless an interesting and potentially important role. The plan of the article is to first briefly explain what the technique is, then analyze its rationale in terms of theories and facts about users and documentation. Next, the article focuses down on some characteristic situations of use, specializing the rationale and reflecting more specifically on potential problems and strengths of the technique in these usage contexts. Finally, it turns to contrasts and conflicts of the technique with related techniques, and possibilities for extending the technique.