How should your company create electronic performance support tools? The authors offer three possibilities: hire someone to do it (if you can find anyone who knows how); take a seminar or workshop (but these only teach one development system); or take the workshop, but also read about design principles and procedures. “That’s where this book comes in,” say Stevens and Stevens.

The book explains how to design electronic performance support systems (EPSSs) in the most direct way--not only with guidelines and “job aids” (quick-reference tables and checklists), but with sample pseudocode and generalized programming scripts.

Chapter 1, “Human Performance and Electronic Performance Support,” lists five benefits that an EPSS might provide: job skills or knowledge; information about a task or situation; expert advice; customized tools; and coaching for computer-based job skills. The authors also match five types of electronic performance support systems to the respective requirements: computer-based training; electronic reference materials; expert systems; task automation; and online help and tutorials.

Chapter 2, “The Technologies of Electronic Performance Support,” contains information on multimedia development systems, including a three-page list of products (descriptions, platforms, and contact information). The authors also distinguish between development systems optimized for a particular type of electronic support and development systems that can create anything, including electronic support systems--Visual Basic, for instance. The optimized system entails a shorter learning curve, but the more powerful and open-ended system is more flexible.

Chapter 3, “Anatomy of an Application,” describes the components of a multimedia system (links, nodes, and scripts) and gives a brief overview of types of screen objects (buttons, strings, fields, windows, and so on).

Chapter 4, “Planning Information Structures and File Structures,” explains how to plan for “re-purposing,” which means finding ways to use the same text or lesson in more than one application.

One of the most interesting parts of chapter 5, “Navigation,” is the discussion of potential navigation failures, including getting lost in hyperspace, and students whose minds wander; this discussion gives users a sense of the size and depth of the system. Also intriguing is a discussion of three approaches to solving navigational problems: objectivist (the designer structures and sequences the material), constructivist (the user creates his or her own paths and understanding), and anarchist (not recommended). Included is an explanation of how to use and display navigational maps.

Chapter 6, “Interface Design,” provides guidelines for creating effective EPSS user interfaces, and has four sample screen designs. The advice is reasonable, but there is one small error in Table 6.4, “Keyboard Control Equivalents for Pointing Devices.” The authors say that [Alt]-[-] executes Undo in Windows applications; the correct combination is [Ctrl]-[Z]. Many users prefer the keyboard to the mouse, and the Stevenses rightly remind readers to include keyboard access.

Chapter 7, “Embedded Tools,” describes built-in tools that support learning, research, and decision making, such as note-taking utilities; customized calculators and analysis programs; access to other programs during tutorials; various auditing functions; and systems for managing computer-based training itself (scheduling classes, scoring tests, and so on). These tools add immense value to certain applications but are often overlooked in application design.

One might think that chapter 8, “Getting Started with Applications,” should be chapter 1, but actually it offers specific guidelines for specific applications. The first part, “Instructional Applications,” addresses the two most important issues for instructional EPSS--how to pick the right navigation style and how to offer feedback. The second section, “Reference and Documentation Applications,” addresses information structure and user access. The third section, “Task Automation Applications,” talks about selecting the right tasks to automate.

Chapter 9, “Hardware and Software,” shows how to pick hardware and software that meet Multimedia PC Marketing Council standards for digital video and audio; it is full of detailed charts and tables.

Chapter 10, “EPSS and Organizational Change: Three Cases,” tells of three businesses that created EPSSs: a health insurance company, to speed up claims processing; a large corporation, to make its employees into knowledge workers; and an automobile leasing company, to train customer-service representatives on its computer systems. Managers considering EPSSs will find this chapter stimulating. The book ends with a good glossary; a bibliography; a list of professional associations, multimedia trade magazines, and journals; and an extensive index. There are only two caveats: the writing tends to ramble occasionally, and many of the diagrams, especially in chapter 4, are far too complicated. This book is a valuable addition to the EPSS library. Those about to embark on an EPSS project will find the authors’ guidance valuable.