Tutorial mismatches: understanding the frictions due to interface differences when following software video tutorials

Video tutorials are the main medium to learn novel software skills. However, the User Interface (UI) presented in a video tutorial may differ from the learner's UI because of customizations or differences in software versions. We investigate the frictions resulting from such differences on a learners' ability to reproduce a task demonstrated in a video tutorial. Through a morphological analysis, we first identify 13 types of "interface differences" that differ in terms of availability, reachability and spatial location of features in the interface. To better assess the frictions resulting from each of these differences, we then conduct a laboratory study with 26 participants instructed to reproduce a vector graphics editing task. Our results highlight interesting UI comparison behaviors, and illustrate various approaches employed to visually locate features.