Re: Re: Modern vs Old-fashioned Help

[Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net>]

Thanks for these great references, Tony. We are reconsidering all of our documentation designs and these discussions about help will be of great interest. I've got to get Ginny Redish's book, too.
 
--Nancy


Jul 25, 2011 11:11:59 AM, tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca wrote:


Ben Minson wrote this post after reading Ginny Redish's Letting Go of
the Words: http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2011/03/why-i-dont-like-tri-pane-help/

Ben shares Ginny's argument that there must be a better way to truly
HELP users, by providing them with multiple scripted pathways, almost
like a role playing game. This process assumes the user doesn't really
want to search; search is a necessary evil to get into the closest
ballpark.

Later, Tom Johnson responded with some pros and cons of the tri-pane model:
http://idratherbewriting.com/2011/03/17/evaluating-tripane-help/
He cites Tony Self's research into exploring non-typical topic
structures to break us out of the book paradigm.

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