[ID Discuss] Access points for context sensitive help

[Pabini Gabriel-Petit]

Hi Alysander

Alysander Stanley wrote:
> 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. ...
> 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. ...

Thanks for the clarification. Good description. Of course, I'm familiar with
this principle, but I'd never heard that term before. It's not a very aptly
descriptive term.

> Clippys problem isn't that he magically appears, it's
> that he's stupid.

I agree with everything you said about the many ways in which Clippy is
stupid and obnoxious. However, I stand by my original statement that a
help-system window should not appear unless a user requests it, because:

* It distracts users from their work when the window appears. For example,
you may have just figured out exactly what you wanted to write after much
thought and were starting to type. The window opens. Poof! There goes your
mental work.
* The window may obscure part of the user's work.
* The window may require window management on the part of the user.

> 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.

Sorry, but I think this sort of assumes ignorance on the user's part. You
cannot know what varied levels of experience your users may bring to the
task of using your application. They may have used other similar
applications and have no difficulty figuring out your product's user
interface. The solution you describe does not have some of the problems that
I mentioned above though and not the most egregious one--the first one.

An alternative would be a Help button in the dialog box that displayed the
context-sensitive information you described in the help-system window.

> I expect that most users will skim over it and close
> down *both* windows.

You should close the help window automatically when the dialog box closes.
Otherwise, this engenders the kind of window-management excess that I
mentioned above.

Pabini
________________________________________

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