Abstract— Consumer electronics is a market segment with constant growth for the last years. Average product lifecycles are dropping and consumers possess a growing amount of technical products for shorter periods of time. Learning how to use a new technical product or how to react in situations when support is required are the two key triggers for technical documentation. At the same time, products resemble each other in terms of technical features. Offering high overall customer experience beyond solely proper product specifications is highly valued by customers and will therefore be a major future competitive advantage for businesses. Utilizing information technologies allows the development of customer support environments for high product learnability. In our practical part of research we analyze existing forms of learning aids for customers. Embedding intelligent information systems into products can ensure appropriate support for product learning. Findings are used to identify relevant theoretical research regarding the learning of product usage. Results are structured in a concept map. By considering the practical as well as theoretical aspects, implications for the implementation of customer support environments with focus on product learnability are given.

Index Terms— Consumer learning, information design, learning technologies, technical documentation.

The author is with Center for Digital Communication, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austriag, Tel.: +43 316 6451; email: research@puchleitner.com

Cite: Thomas Puchleitner, " New Media in Consumer Learning: Mapping Theoretical and Practical Approaches on Information Service Design," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 461-472, 2014.