[ID Discuss] Access points for context sensitive help

[Alysander Stanley]

I feel like this is getting a bit far from the
original post, but it's an interesting topic.
The real issue is that it's outside the scope of any
individual program.
As Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. wrote in The Mythical
Man-Month, chapter 4: "I will contend that conceptual
integrity is /the/ most important consideration in
system design.  It is better to have a system omit
certain anomalous features and improvements, but to
reflect one set of design ideas, than to have one that
contains many good but independent ideas."

I still think it's a good idea,  maybe for the next
generation of GUIs.


Hello Pabini,

You're right, non-command isn't an "aptly descriptive
term". Sorry.

>* 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.

This is another issue with clippy, not with my system.
 Clippy appears and disappears at any time.
My help window only appears with an unfamiliar and
complicated command's dialog box.  It is possible that
a users could click on a menu and a previously unused
option by accident while they were thinking deeply
about what to write, but there's not much you can do
about that.
Another example of badly timed dialog boxes is
Norton's anti-virus program's subscription  renewal
reminder.  Not funny if you're showing a powerpoint
presentation to an audience.  

>* The window may obscure part of the user's work.
>* The window may require window management on the
> part of the user.
Any Help window could have these problems.

> Sorry, but I think this sort of assumes ignorance on
the user's part.
Well, the program could always ask the user if they
were already familiar with the program the first time
they use it.
And is assuming expertise really any better than
assuming ignorance?

> You should close the help window automatically when
> the dialog box closes.
This is just as serious as opening a window
automatically,  what if they want to check out a
related command that is referenced in the document? 
For example, subtracting from highlights and adding to
shadows in Levels is the same as increasing contrast. 


>They may have used other similar applications 
> and have no difficulty figuring out your product's
> user interface.

Let's say someone is used to Photoshop 5 and is
experimenting with Paint Shop Pro 5.  Paint shop pro
has a similiar command to "Levels" called
"Highlights/Midtones/Shadows" but instead of a
histogram with sliders, it has 3 entry fields where
you type percentages of adjustment.  Now, the person
from photoshop probably won't recognize this feature
without some Help.

In fact, even different versions of the same program
are likely to have different implementations of the
same features.

The only situation I can think of where two different
programs are likely to share some complicated features
which are exactly the same is in a suite.  Like Adobe
CS.
Programs in a suite could check if you have already
seen the documentation before opening it up for you.

In any case, it's easy to close the window and it
won't happen again without an explicit command.

Thanks for your interest.
- Alysander

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