Assisting the “virtual” user

The development of online assistance for remote users of computer-based systems depends upon the assumptions made about the barriers users face and about the available strategies for addressing them. Drawing from the domain of digital libraries and information discovery and retrieval, this commentary speculates about missed opportunities hidden by those assumptions. Critical questions about strategies to remove user barriers, to guide users past barriers, and to help educate users to anticipate and independently overcome barriers suggest transitions for online user assistance technologies that could take the form of "confusion recognizers," "assistance avatars," and "pedagogically aware" user interfaces.