Lots of stuff on how to write & design help. As Jared said, technical communicators have been doing this work for years...and also struggling with the question, "Does anyone use help?" Indeed, writing and designing online help systems helped me move from tech writing to UI design to HCI/IA/IxD to UX design.
You can test help, and you can do it contextually. I've done tasks designed to see where people go to find information--do they sleect help icons, menu items, tool tips...or do they reach for a paper manual? In addition to WritersUA (http://www.writersua.com/), check out the technical writers' mailing list: To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l JoAnn Hackos wrote Standards of Online Communication (http://bit.ly/tCZot) that's older but still good. Same with Bill Horton's "Designing and Writing Online Documentation." http://bit.ly/4On4q Mike Hughes is writing a column on UA for UXMatters.com: http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2008/05/user-assistance-writing-for-a-high-context-culture.php Yet the design of help features and content doesn't differ from other things you deliver, in that you have to know the user, their context, and what they expect/need/want.In some cases, you might want to design help that fades away after the user successfully does more stuff with your product. Or you might find that having first-time help wizards work better. Best, joe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41773 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
