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How do customers expect to access online Help? Once in the Help system, how do they expect to navigate toward the information they need? In the absence of detailed research that tells us what customers know about getting and using online Help, we can look for clues in the marketplace. A survey of the Help systems in more than sixty Windows 95 applications (including those in the major suites from Corel, Lotus, and Microsoft) shows some clear trends. These trends can help us understand what customers are coming to expect from online Help based on their experience with other Windows 95 applications.
Elley, Frank. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Help
#24306
Judging from the work of fellow Help writers, the value of graphics in online Help is subject to debate. Of the more than sixty Help systems reviewed for this session (including the suites from Corel, Lotus, and Microsoft), fewer than half featured significant use of graphics. Even the Help systems of some graphics applications consisted mainly of text, broken only occasionally by utilitarian screenshots of tools and buttons. Yet, even though we have had only a few years of experience in designing graphics for online Help, many of the Help systems revealed a wealth of good ideas worth adapting for use in your own systems.
Elley, Frank. STC Proceedings (1998). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Online
