the evolution of online help

The Evolution of Online Helpfrom user guides to task oriented help

Diana Lakatos, technical writer

What’s more important:UX or documentation?

UXvisual design

interaction design

information architecture

usability

familiarity of a user with an interface is based on user’s previous experience with similar interfaces

good UX builds on similar interfaces

chasing cultural consciousness

Are you prepared to ignore some of your customers or do you create backup plans for the people that have a different experience profile?

Why would you need documentation?

Cognitive load on the Internet

What is cognitive load?What are the consequences?

consuming information in a hurry

becoming impatient

wanting instant gratification

attention span decreases

no time for deep thinking

no time for learning

Make it quick, make it relevant, otherwise no one will care.

separate piece of documentation

switching back and forth

interpret and remember steps

Manuals & video tutorials

Continuously changing products

documentation only works if it’s up-to-date

keeping screenshots and videos up-to-date is time-consuming

even small changes on the interface can be visible in many related tutorials

users have to abstract information in order to apply it

Communities & collaborationopen source software (collaborate, reuse)

documentation for open source projects typically written by a small group of people

tools?

reuse?

Stepped contextual help

user guides, video tutorials

contextual help

stepped contextual help

Our approach based on DITA principles

WalkHubframework for integrated tutorials, GPS for the Internet

Drupal

Selenium testing format/recorder

Joyride.JS

open source product

Topic-orientationtopic

task

concept

reference

Minimalism

Chunking

Prerequisites

Walkthrough Suites

Single-sourcing

Community

Re-use

WalkHub workshop 14:30, Ursa Minor