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Style guidelines for how to structure helpfiles?

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daddydave:
I'm not really sure why you see that as "not the best thing to do" as the only way I could see it being better is if the dialog itself was inside the search box to make it even more minimal. (I'm mostly referring to web services though)
-Paul Keith (July 07, 2010, 06:35 PM)
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Well, it's bad enough that a program is counterintuitive enough to require going to the help file, now I'm telling people the interface is so horrible they have to watch a movie to figure out how to use it. And with a help file ideally they can hopefully glance at it and get on with their work. You can't skim a video. In that way it is respectful of the user's time. That was my thinking, but I know not everyone thinks the same way, that's why I was asking.

I did have in mind to do a screencast, but mainly for the benefit for those trying to figure out what it is and whether it was worth downloading. And some how-to screencasts as well, but not as  a replacement for the help file.

steeladept:
Well, it's bad enough that a program is counterintuitive enough to require going to the help file, now I'm telling people the interface is so horrible they have to watch a movie to figure out how to use it. And with a help file ideally they can hopefully glance at it and get on with their work. You can't skim a video. In that way it is respectful of the user's time. That was my thinking, but I know not everyone thinks the same way, that's why I was asking.

I did have in mind to do a screencast, but mainly for the benefit for those trying to figure out what it is and whether it was worth downloading. And some how-to screencasts as well, but not as  a replacement for the help file.
-daddydave (July 08, 2010, 05:56 AM)
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This is my mind exactly.  Screencasts as help files is the lazy way out because it never helps!  It shows one persons' thought on how something should be implemented without a thought to my needs as the customer/user.  I could care less about using fancywidget's video capabilities, yet that is all the screencast shows!  No, it is a great marketing idea, but marketing and help are two totally different things.

My thoughts on help are in this order:  1) The UI should be intuitive enough that the help is unnecessary for 90% of the users.  2) The help should identify little known or little used nuggets, then explain all the possibilities and limitations of those options. 3) The help file should be intuitive itself (think tooltips or intellesense from VisualStudio). 4) It should be integrated into the product - not an add-on and not a website. 5) It should direct you to further information (usually a forum) for those things that were not thought of.  Ideally, it should also be updateable as part of a patch to add those things found from the further information source.

Paul Keith:
Marketing is help in the age of application overload.

It not only helps with discovery but most of all, it helps save the user time in figuring out whether the application is really for them.

Best of all, it helps the developer himself understand how best to help not only the users who have his perspective but especially those who don't see it the same way he does.

Which is the point of help - you want to help those who see through your eyes via the interface and you want to help those who don't via a screencast so that they can actually see how you see the application as.

It's actually lazier to not add screencasts when you can afford to because guess what? Adding screencasts doesn't remove you from the responsibility of doing all those other things like intuitive user interface.

If anything it encourages you because you don't want to be that person designing an orange painted car in a car show and have all that eyes think "scrap metal".

Similarly with a screencast - get lazy with either the interface or the screencast and it's pretty clear someone got lazy compared to the laziness hiding beneath the post-downloaded user who now needs to take some extra time figuring out your application and then uninstalling it.

I think what you guys are referring to instead are "guides". A guide can choose to leave or help someone depending on their bias. They are there to help but it's like a manual - it's there to help by being there.

...but there's a higher level of help.

That said I'm being hypocritical just so you know.

I'm the type of guy who tries to listen to people help me improve my writing style...and I listen...and I listen... but I just can't quite succumb to their perspective without losing the content of what I wanted to write so I hope you guys understand that this isn't me saying you're wrong, just providing a perspective that just as I should add more images in my posts - maybe you guys can find it in yourselves to try to discover a screencast structure that sticks true to your interpretations without blocking out those people who need help via a screencast.

daddydave:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/smartadd/
-Paul Keith (July 07, 2010, 06:35 PM)
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is a really good example of the italicized part below.

Generally I would think the important part is to narrow down the search and the actual guide. Everything else is secondary even the structure although that is where having your program be able to support the help in it's structure rather than having a separate section helps.
[italics mine]
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Gives me too many ideas of how to improve what was supposed to be a quick and dirty script :)

EDIT: That is, it's not only a good example of documentation, it's a good example of having interface hints pop up helpfully but uninstrusively so that you don't need to go to the documentation.

steeladept:
Never saw that before, but it is very similar to how intellesense works in Visual Studio.  That is exactly what I meant by that.  Of course no one ever said it would be quick and easy  :P

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