How do users access your help?

[nickatwork]

Hi all,
Quite a broad question, but I'm looking for inspiration and good ideas for access to help. Namely webhelp, or online accessed help, though any good ideas are always welcome.

Our software is accessed online, and I'm trying to think of interesting or useful ways to provide users access to our help.

We could go with traditional a Help button on the screen, or CSH, but I'm wanting to think outside the box for a future revamp and release of the site....

Any good resources that people may suggest for ideas would be much appreciated too.

Thanks!
Nick

[RamonS]

Users access help the way they are used to. And that is Help button and F1. F1 doesn't work too well for a browser based app, because you get the help for the browser. Help buttons or a "?" link next to fields and controls is more intuitive, because people know what it means and they know this gives them help.
Thinking out of the box is always interesting, but be careful to make sure that it is then still extremely obvious on how to obtain help. What may go more with modern times and work better with browser tabs is to show help in a side pane (frame) mimicking the integrated DotNetHelp.

[i-tietz]

It's called "Embedded Help": Having an additional window in your application that shows the help that's assigned to the control that has the focus or one of its parent controls (i.e.: the help of the tab if the focus is on one of the input fields on the tab). But that needs intensive cooperation of the TC department with the development department.

[doneal]

We have a medical database with about 700 data items (cancer research). It is completely web based data entry and data quality checking. When help is required for data entry or quality testing, the user right clicks on any data item or its label. We open the appropriate HELP page. Along with opening the HELP topic, we provide links to other online reference manuals as some of our data entry or quality test activities skirt along the gray edge or rulesl. So, we make it easy for the person to see all the requirements documents that are applicable.

[nickatwork]

Yeah I totally agree that it needs to be painfully obvious to the user how they can get to the help, but at the same time I want to enable users to get to the help for the area they are looking at...

A single button works, but unless it points the user to exactly where they are within the help, it relies on them to search for what they think they need. This doesnt always lead to them finding the answer, and then they may not use help again. I know this is also related to how help is structured etc...

CSH - the ? next to each field - does work, though it can look a bit messy if the page starts to contain a lot of feilds.

I do like the idea of a sliding tab on the side, though this would indeed take a lot of development, and I dont think we could encroach on so much screen real estate. I have a seen similar help used in MS Office and Lotus Notes, the trouble with it is that either the screen is not very wide, meaning you are scrolling for a looooong time, or you end up dragging it across a much larger area of the screen.


To the drawing board I go....

[RamonS]

CSH - the ? next to each field - does work, though it can look a bit messy if the page starts to contain a lot of feilds.

True, but with proper layout even many fields can look OK, especially when the field length is the same for each field. You end up with a layout that resembles a table. Depending on how many fields you got, the developers can group them and have the groups be drop-downs. That way you can compress an otherwise huge page down to a very manageable page. Basically the same approach as for the drop-downs / expanding hot spots in help.
That is a solution I'd find to be OK for something like advanced configuration. For anything that is used first or used often follow KISS. Do whatever is needed and whatever customers already asked for, but not more, even when it makes sense to you / the developers / BAs. Way too many features that make perfect sense to the designers and are thought of as a must are not used in the end. Besides that, adding new features is easier than taking something away.
I mention it because the application design has a strong impact on the help. The easier the app is in structure and concept the easier it is to write help for it. If a process of three steps ends up requiring ten steps even the best help file won't compensate for that. So if the design is sound then having the ? next to fields and controls shouldn't be an issue.

[i-tietz]

For anything that is used first or used often follow KISS.

What is "KISS"?

[RamonS]

KISS = Keep it simple, stupid!
KISS is also an awesome band, but that wasn't what I meant in this context.

[Lucia]

I'd rather say KISS = Keep It Super Simple