Generations change. Help formats remain the same.

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John Waller
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Generations change. Help formats remain the same.

Unread post by John Waller »

I was reading this blog entry at idratherbewriting.com and it prompted me to think about the future of help authoring.

Points raised (in no particular order) include:

- is the printed manual dead (or are its days numbered)? Although some companies still insist on producing them, do users ever read them?

- how do users learn software these days? Seems that Google, forums/newsgroups and trial-and-error are the usual methods for the more impatient Gen X'ers and Gen Y'ers (and me!). That pretty much describes my learning process these days. It's how I learned H&M.

- What role, if any, do structured help docs play now (and in future)?

- Has Help documentation outside the context of the GUI lost relevance for the majority of users? A lot of work goes into creating it in its various formats, does anyone actually ever read it?

- Is zero-click or single click (in context) help the way of the future? e.g. "How do I..." buttons in the GUI?

- do the more random and chaotic help formats (e.g. wikis and blogs) help or hinder learning? I only use wikis and blogs for troubleshooting very specific software issues, not for learning how to use software.


Just food for thought.

I wondered if any experienced help authors here might offer some thoughts.
Regards

John Waller
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Sheri Steeves
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Unread post by Sheri Steeves »

John,

I don't think the printed manual is completely dead, but it's certainly not used as much. Most software is direct download, so your manual is usually a PDF and maybe also an on-line chm. If you want it printed, you print it yourself.

We find a lot of our older users actually prefer a printed manual, but the majority will click away with trial and error. It's only once they can't figure something out that they'll e-mail or phone support and then WE point them to the appropriate section in the manual.

Our forum does get a fair number of views, and a lot of the forum contains small step-by-step instructions, or even points back to the manual.

I've looked at the wiki's and blogs and maybe I'm old school but I don't find them that helpful in general.

Ironically it's out technical support the reads the manual the most!

Sheri
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Alexander Hompe
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Unread post by Alexander Hompe »

Ironically it's out technical support the reads the manual the most!
I think this is not unusual. We experienced that our customers very often do not read the manual or even the context sensitive chm-help. It is much more easier to call us. And although we are the vendor of the software we sometimes have to read the manuel to re-understand how some special features really work. I consider this aspect when I write the help. So our help files are also our documentation


I think the development goes to a merge of GUI and Help (wizards and 'How to's). This reflects more the common way of trial and error using a software.
Alone standing help projects won't have a future.

WIKIs are no option for help in my opinion.

Regards,
Alex
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

You have to be very careful about drawing conclusions on what your users are doing based on those users who contact support. Support feedback generally gives you a very distorted view of your user base and taking design decisions based on that feedback can easily lead you in the wrong direction.

First look at how many users you have and how many of them are actually contacting support. You will probably find that the great majority are not contacting support. This means that they are doing fine with your documentation, and it is very likely that they are reading it.

I am personally convinced that the idea that users don't read documentation is a myth resulting from incorrect interpretation of support feedback. Certainly there are quite a few users who are very passive and who will cry for help before even looking in the documentation, but there are even more who take the initiative, study the documentation and get on just fine. If it wasn't this way marketing software would be impossible - we'd all be doing nothing but support all the time. 8)
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Alexander Hompe
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Unread post by Alexander Hompe »

You give me hope, Tim! ;-)
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John Waller
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Unread post by John Waller »

Tim Green wrote:You have to be very careful about drawing conclusions on what your users are doing based on those users who contact support. Support feedback generally gives you a very distorted view of your user base and taking design decisions based on that feedback can easily lead you in the wrong direction.
Couldn't agree with you more, Tim.
Tim Green wrote:You will probably find that the great majority (of users) are not contacting support. This means that they are doing fine with your documentation, and it is very likely that they are reading it.
Hmm. I wonder if that's a valid conclusion to draw about the "silent majority" of users.

Jensen Harris (Microsoft UI) wrote an interesting blog article a few years ago called "Help Is For Experts" (when the Office 2007 Ribbon UI was under development).

His point in a nutshell was: "Yet, in usability tests we see it again and again: novices and intermediates click around and experiment, experts try to reason things out and look them up in help."

This reinforces Sheri's point in this thread: "Ironically it's our technical support that reads the manual the most!"

Jensen Harris adds the following about "perpetual intermediates":
The idea, paraphrased, is that most people using software are "intermediates." Beginners don't stay that way for long, but most people don't have the time, energy, or desire to become truly elite "experts." I believe that it is precisely these intermediates who don't rely on the help system. In fact, they might be defined by their general unwillingness to look features up in the "command encyclopedia." Experience shows that intermediates tend to explore the product, not the help system.
So what kind of H&M users, under their own steam, implement the advanced features of H&M such as snippets, embedded topics and modular help (without asking for help in these forums)? Can we define H&M users as experts, who plumb the depths of H&M's Help, by virtue of the fact that they're using H&M?

I found Jensen Harris' closing remark rather thought-provoking:
But it's worth noting that if you're authoring your help system for newcomers, you might be designing for the wrong kind of person.
I am personally convinced that the idea that users don't read documentation is a myth resulting from incorrect interpretation of support feedback.
That could well be true but I'm more inclined to think that intermediate users "get by" with the software provided it lets them do what they want to do (even Word can be used to write a Help manual of sorts but it's hell to maintain and restructure on a whim - one reason why I'm a happy H&M user).

I think there could be some weight in Jensen Harris' assertion that Help Is For Experts.
Regards

John Waller
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

I definitely agree with the general drift of the help is for experts argument, but I would also argue that Help & Manual is for experts. We have to differentiate on the basis of the type of application in question. Help & Manual is a tool for help authors, who are (hopefully) by definition experts. I know that there are companies who sit some poor secretary down and tell her to write documentation, even though he/she can only just manage to create indents with spaces in Word, but those should generally be the minority.

Another good example of a program for experts is Photoshop, which is really completely impossible to use without extensive study. It is different from Help & Manual in that a huge number of amateurs and newbies also try to use it, which is why we see so many Photoshop HowTo sites on the web.

Programs written for complete novices do well to integrate all the information (or as much as possible) that users will need directly in the interface. This is not possible in a professional tool like Help & Manual -- all that can be done is to provide good Help buttons at the neuralgic points and structure the help as usefully as possible.

On the whole, I think that a surprising number of users do make extensive use of a surprising number of the features in Help & Manual, but it's difficult to be sure, of course. :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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