[ID Discuss] Access points for context sensitive help

[Pabini Gabriel-Petit]

Hi Navneet

Please see my responses below...

Pabini Gabriel-Petit
________________________________________

Pabini Gabriel-Petit
Principal & User Experience Architect
Spirit Softworks
www.spiritsoftworks.com

Navneet Nair wrote:
With our next release of our web based software we are planning to
incorporate
> context sensitive help as part of the application. Currently the help is
> accessed from a drop-down Help menu that has a link to the 'Contents and
> Index.' This of course, opens the help with the TOC and the default
welcome
> page. As per the current implementation, the context sensitive help can be
> accessed by using the F1 key which opens the help related to the page the
user
> is accessing in a window without the index and TOC. There is no other link
to
> the context sensetive help.

***[PGP] When you say "web based software", so you mean HTML based or native
binary? How context-sensitive is your help? Does it cover an entire page or
window or single options? Sounds like it may be the former. If so, why not
add an option to the Help menu?

Help for This Page

If not, use an option appropriate for a window. What else is in that menu?

> What would be the ideal access point for help? I've noticed Lotus Notes
has two
> links in the help menu. One takes you to the 'Help Topics' and the other
> opens 'Context Help,' but I've not noticed this variation in a lot of
other
> applications. Usually the F1 key does the job of context sensitivity with
no
> link separate link in the Menu.

***[PGP] That Lotus Notes implementation is a poor one. It's ungrammatical
and jargon, too. I'd personally never use the F1 key, so would never find
the context-sensitive help. There should always be a visible affordance that
tells users there is context-sensitive help for a Web page or window.

> Are there any patterns or conventions in this respect?

***[PGP] A ? button is a common approach for context-sensitive help.