Minimalist? online help?

Subject: Minimalist? online help?
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 14:03:15 -0500

Nancy Mignone reports: <<Our online help is, I guess, minimalist: few
colors, just the essential information in any procedure, no introductory
material before procedures, very little in the way of location indicators. I
mean, it is bare bones.>>

The fact that the help is simple in appearance strikes me as a virtue, since
it probably means you've concentrated on the content, not the appearance,
and that's a good thing in a help system; many help systems look quite
attractive, but that design took time that would have been better spent on
the content. The lack of introductory material concerns me; you need to
provide some context in many cases, since users may arrive at a topic from
just about anywhere (e.g., an index) and not know the starting point for the
current topic. The lack of a location indicator _can_ be serious if the
design of your help text is such that readers need to know where the current
topic fits within a broader context. Including the introductory (context)
information can usually solve this problem, but for larger systems, it's
sometimes a good idea to provide "you are here" information, such as a
header for each page (e.g., help->printing->configuring the
printer->installing a printer driver).

<<I am wondering if I should add some of the following: screenshots
(controversial, I know)>>

Not controversial at all. Whenever you find yourself trying to awkwardly
describe something (e.g., the third icon in the second row on the left side
of the righthand dialog box; the chartreuse icon that looks kinda like a
squashed bug or an *, only different), it's a good bet that you need a
screenshot. Don't forget that screenshots can be as small as a single icon
or symbol, or as large as the full screen, with callouts defining the
components of the screen. I've used both.

<<product overview>>

I prefer to put such information in the printed manual, but it's certainly
valid to include it in the online help too. For example, in one product's
help, I created a topic that provides a high-level overview of the steps
required to produce a workable model, with links from each step to more
detailed information on that step. Reading just the overview tells you what
the software does and how to do it; if you need to actually do it, you click
a link to find the relevant details for that step, then click the Back
button to return to the overview and continue with the next step. (Kinda
like a wizard, but without the programming.)

<<file re-ordering to follow logical order of operations>>

This is called a "browse sequence", and though I don't discount this tool
out of hand, I do find it of questionable usefulness. Very few users will
read sequentially through your online help nowadays; most simply want a
quick answer to an urgent question about the current screen or dialog or
task. That being the case, I do try to organize my help files in a
reasonably logical order (for those who might be tempted to browse), but
prefer to directly support learning by providing topics (such as the one
described above) that present an overview of a particular sequence paired
with links to more detailed information.

<<locational directives>>

As noted above, these can be a useful aid, but can also often be replaced by
providing context at the start of a topic and "see also" links. Context can
be simple: "The Open command under the File menu lets you..." It can also be
complicated: "Before you can disarm the reactor, you need to understand
three things: 1, 2, 3. Okay, now grab your lead apron and follow me as we
disarm that green glowing gizmo we all love to hate."

<<explanations of why a user might perform a given procedure.>>

Very useful in my opinion, and doubly so if the explanations are unobtrusive
and don't prevent users who already know this context from skipping easily
to the meat of the topic (the steps in a procedure, for example).

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a
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