#19761
A Case Study of Context-Sensitive Web Application Help Using the WebHelp API
Discussion of the particular case of an interactive web design to create online user assistance for three distinct audiences: creative artists; Homebuilder sales staff; individual homeowners.
Daigle, John. HyperTexas (2003). Design>Web Design>Help
#27658
Constructing a One-Stop "Answer Station" Website for Software Users
The web allows us to easily provide updated documentation to our users, but why stop there? There is more to making users successful quickly than just providing documentation. By creating a complete 'Answer Station' that is accessible from the application or product, we can not only direct users to that updated documentation, but we can also provide information about technical support, consulting, training, sales, etc. This article discusses writing a proposal for an Answer Station, determining content, working with other departments to gather information, designing the site, making that design work with an existing corporate website, dealing with tool issues, and finally, going live.
Bleiel, Nicoletta A. and Beth A. Williams. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Help
#30208
Customer Support on the Web: Don't Call Us, We'll Call You
Sometimes, when a customer looks for contact information for Customer Support, it is hidden from view or buried beneath layers of menus. Some companies even deliberately hide their contact information, because they simply don't want customers to contact them. So, what factors should you consider if your goal is providing more optimal customer support on the Web?
Szuc, Daniel. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Help
#28904
Many Web application designers strive to reduce the amount of instructional text that appears in the user interfaces they create. A likely part of their motivation is the perception that, if explaining how to use something requires too much instruction, it probably isn't that easy to use and, therefore, has room for improvement in its design. Another motivating factor might be the tendency for people not to read any on-screen instructions, just like they tend not to read product manuals. This type of thinking also applies to Web forms. When possible, designers strive to utilize a minimal amount of text to explain how users should fill in the different input fields in a form.
Wroblewski, Luke. UXmatters (2007). Design>Web Design>Forms>Help
#27418
Two relatively common usability problems with web forms are textareas that are too small, and dropdown lists being clumsy to use for some people. This Greasemonkey user script automatically assigns links above each textarea so that it can be resized, and automatically expands dropdown lists. The script is easily configurable, so you can choose not to expand dropdown lists, or determine the maximum number of items you want displayed in a dropdown list, or have graphic or text links for resizing textarea form controls.
Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2006). Design>Web Design>Forms>Help
#32517
Accessible Context-Sensitive Help with Unobtrusive DOM Scripting
This article demonstrates two methods of calling context-sensitive help in a web form: the Field Help Method and Form Help Method, in which unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript is employed to achieve the desired result. It also serves to illustrate the separation of the Structure and Behavior layers of a web page. Graceful degradation is employed to make sure that the help information is accessible if JavaScript is disabled or not available in a user agent.
Palinkas, Frank M. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Help
#33466
How to Handle the Page Not Found Error
Every site should handle the page not found error gracefully. Two quite similar articles have the following tips: do not redirect people to the home page; let the visitor know that something unexpected is going on at first glance.
GUUUI (2004). Articles>Web Design>Help
#35188
Creating Accessible Tabular Data Tables: A Help Authoring Guide
This Fast Track tutorial demonstrates and employs web standards and accessibility methods for tabular data table creation. It is presented free of charge to the community as a help authoring, technical writing and web design guide.
Palinkas, Frank M. helpware.net (2009). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Help
#35190
Calling Accessible Context-Sensitive Help with Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript: A Help Authoring Guide
This Fast Track tutorial demonstrates two methods to call Context-Sensitive Help in a Web Form. We'll discover how Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript achieves the desired result in calling Context-Sensitive help, and demonstrate how to keep the Structure, Presentation, and Behavior layers of a web page completely separate from one another ensuring good practice with current web standards and accessibility rules.
Palinkas, Frank M. helpware.net (2009). Articles>Web Design>Documentation>Help
#35191
There are times when we need to build a navigation tree stucture to accomodate a small document collection. There is no need to have this nav list expand or contract, so employing a Behavior layer (unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript) is not appropriate.
Palinkas, Frank M. helpware.net (2009). Articles>Web Design>CSS>Help
#35210
As help systems continue to evolve, whatever name they are called, we will increasingly have to face responsibility for their content, and bring their expertise to what we write. The new systems provide us with all the required tools that tell us the problems with their content. It is up to us to leverage that information to provide better content, and act as ambassadors for products that we write. If writers can go a step ahead, and use their help information to sell products, and reduce the burden on customer support, we would have truly arrived.
Kurnool, Preran. Indus (2009). Articles>Web Design>Documentation>Help
