[ID Discuss] Access points for context sensitive help

[alysander stanley]

Hello Pabini,

To answer your question:

>What exactly did you mean by "ideally
non-command\contextual?

My definition of "non-command" is based on Jakob
Nielsen's essay:
http://www.useit.com/papers/noncommand.html

I mean that user interfaces can often be simplified if
the device makes use of contextual information.  For
example, nearly every dos game has a configuration
program for the sound effects and music.   More recent
games can get that information automatically, which
totaly avoids the need to explain DMA and IRQ
channels.
Similarly, webpages can use javascript to detect
screen sizes rather than requiring users to say what
resolution their screen is.  If the browser doesn't
support javascript, you can show a simple version
without all those graphics.  This means you don't have
to provide help for users that don't know what their
screen size is (most don't).

>"In my view, a help system should never open itself."
So what about those tooltips you were talking about?

But I know what you mean, you're talking about Clippy.
Clippys problem isn't that he magically appears, it's
that he's stupid.  Clippy wants to know if you're
opening a document when you open word.  Instead, word
should open the documents you were using last time 
automatically.
And clippy tries to do too much.  He wants to be a
menu, he wants to be a tooltip, he wants to be a
dialog box.  But he's the odd one out and has to go.
Which leads us to his other big problem:  he doesn't
want to go away.

My help system is different from that.
If you have a user that hasn't used the program much
before and they click on a command which they haven't
used before that involves a complicated dialog box
(like Levels in Photoshop) a help page window opens
next to the dialog box (they're tiled) which simply
describes what the command is for and how to use it.

I expect that most users will skim over it and close
down *both* windows.  Except that now they have a fair
idea what the commands for, and maybe even how to use
it.  Or that they don't need it.  
And they know what to expect when they click on Help.

Dialog boxes can't show that on their own, even with
tooltips.

-Alysander


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