Is the help helpful? : how to create online help that meets your users' needs / Jean Hollis Weber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weber, Jean Hollis.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Online information services.

Information services.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 224 p.

Place of Publication:

Whitefish Bay, WI : Hentzenwerke Publishing, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Is the Help Helpful? presents the full cycle of help content development, regardless of the operating system running the application, the type of help being produced, or the tools used to produce it. In this book, you'll discover the 10 most common complaints that users have with online help, the causes of the underlying problems, and ways to avoid those problems, the 11 steps in the ideal help development process, their benefits, and the problems that arise when a step is left out, techniques for planning, writing, editing, reviewing, and testing online help and sample plans and specifications for your help project. Other books teach how to use a particular online help authoring tool, but they don't teach how to plan, write, edit, and test the help system being developed. Is the Help Helpful? supplements tool-specific instructions by presenting the basics of help content development, regardless of the operating system running the application, the type of help being produced, or the tools used to produce it. It is intended for technical writing students, project managers, writers, editors, and others involved in the production of online help.

Contents:

Intro

Our Contract with You, the Reader

List of Chapters

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

How to Download the Files

Introduction

Chapter 1: Planning an Online Help Project

Why plan an online help project?

What process is used in an ideal help project?

Step 1. Analyze the audience, plan the project, and write the plan

Benefits of this step

Problems if this step is not done

Step 2. Develop high-level specifications

Step 3. Develop detailed specifications

Step 4. Perform a detailed task analysis

Step 5. Build and evaluate a prototype help system

Step 6. Develop an outline and map of the help project

Step 7. Write, index, and edit the help topics

Step 8. Review the help topics

Step 9. Test the help

Step 10. Release the help with the product

Step 11. Evaluate the help and plan for improvements

What are the roles in an online help project?

Project manager/planner/producer's role

Writer's role

Editor's role

Graphic artist's or illustrator's role

Instructional designer's role

Programmer's role

Multimedia producer's role

Indexer's role

Localization and translation coordinator's role

Usability tester's role.

Quality assurance (QA) person's role

How much time is required for producing online help?

Overall time required

Time required for different activities

Number of help topics required

Who does what, when?

Organizing the flow of writing, editing, reviewing, and testing

Stages of help and software development

How many reviews are needed, and when?

What types of testing are required?

Test of internal links, also called reliability testing

Test of external links

Is the help helpful?

Methods for editing and reviewing

Compiled help with annotations

Compiled help with separate comments file

Compiled help printed and annotated by hand

RTF, Microsoft Word, or other editable files

PDF files

Changes typed directly into help source file

Choosing help-development tools

Conclusion

Chapter 2: Analyzing Audiences and Tasks

Who are the audiences?

Example 1. Audience analysis for TreeLine

Example 2. Audience analysis for a multi-user database program

Working with user profiles and personas

Example 3. Personas for TreeLine

What are the audiences' tasks?

Example 4. User task analysis for TreeLine

Example 5. User/task matrix for a multi-user database program

Example 6. Task map for TreeLine

Flow diagram

Working with use cases and user scenarios

Example 7. Use case and user scenario for an e-mail program

Use case example

User scenario example

What questions will the audience ask?

Build lists of users' questions and help topic types

Example 8. Part of a task-topic list for TreeLine

Chapter 3: Developing Specifications

High-level specifications

How will the online help coordinate with other user documents?

Do you plan to single-source your documentation?

What type of help will best fit the application?.

How will the help be connected to the application?

What media types are required?

Your audience

The writing team

What tools are needed?

Hardware

Software

What information types and levels are required?

What topic types are required?

Overviews and conceptual topics

Window- or dialog-level topics

Procedural (task) topics

Field-level topics

Reference topics

Lookup topics

Example topics

Problem-solving topics

Frequently Asked Question topics

Glossary and other pop-up topics

Error message help topics

Tip-of-the-day topics

Wizards, coaches, and other performance support topics

Show-me, demonstration, and tutorial topics

How will the help windows (or pages) be presented?

What navigation aids will be used?

How will the help meet localization criteria?

How will the help meet accessibility criteria?

Detailed specifications

Related documents (primary sources)

Writing conventions

Terminology

Design and layout

Help navigation scheme

Content of topic types

Overview topics

Conceptual topics

Dialog-level topics

Procedural ("how to") topics

Glossary topics

Project-specific style guide

Chapter 4: Prototyping the Help System

Why build a prototype of a help system?

Building a high-level concept and design prototype

Advantages of paper prototypes

Advantages of electronic prototypes

What to include in a high-level prototype

Design and navigation

Sample topics

Create a working high-level prototype

Building a detailed contents prototype

Outline and map the help project

Use the outline and roadmap to build a detailed prototype

Fill in the details

Conclusion.

Chapter 5: Avoiding Common Problems

1. I can't find what I'm looking for.

Causes

Information not in the help

Help not context-sensitive

Poor table of contents

Poor indexing

Poor linking between topics

Diagnosing the problem

Cures

2. I can't figure out what's going on.

Help topic says only what to do

Writers assume users understand the bigger task

Users access help topic from contents or index

3. I can't figure out what will happen when I do something.

User interface is unclear

Not enough information is given in the help

Writers did not have the information or the time to work it out for themselves

Help specifications were not adequate

4. There's too much detail.

Writers assume all users need this level of detail

Writers don't know how to subdivide information

Help tries to cover every alternative

One help topic must cover several dialogs

5. There's not enough detail.

Writers lack information, or are too familiar with the product

One window or dialog contains several tabbed pages

One help topic covers several dialogs

6. I can't get to the help when I want it.

Help button or F1 gives an error message or nothing at all happens

No Help button or menu-bar item

A wizard or other startup window prevents access to the main program

7. The program isn't working the way the help says it should.

Late changes to user interface

Inadequate reviews or testing, and writers' lack of knowledge

8. Help says what the system does, but not how to use it.

Inappropriate user expectations.

Help focuses on low-level tasks

Help focuses on what various controls do

9. I want a bigger picture of what this program can do.

Some information is only in printed or PDF form

Information is in the help but can't be found easily

Information is not available to users in any form

10. The help is inconsistent and badly written and formatted.

Inexperienced writers

Converting from another format

Single-sourcing

Inadequate testing

Inadequate specifications and project style guide

Browser problems

Categorizing problem severity

Chapter 6: Producing the Table of Contents and Index

Table of contents

Index

Search

Designing a useful table of contents

Structure

Presentation

Expanding tree structure

A page of ordinary links

Reviewing a table of contents

Example 1. Table of contents with subtle problems

Example 2. A more user-friendly table of contents

Example 3. Another user-friendly table of contents

Example 4. A different approach: table of contents for a Web site

Designing a useful index

Reviewing an index

Example 5. An index with problems

Example 6. A better index for an e-mail program

Example 7. An index with clearly differentiated entries

Example 8. An automatically generated index for a Web site

Example 9. A bad example: combining index and search

Chapter 7: Providing Navigation and Context

Avoiding problems

Using cross-references and other links

Links to other topics, files, or locations

Links to pop-up topics, including glossary topics

Related topic references

Example of a link list without descriptions

Example of a link list with brief descriptions.

Example of links with longer descriptions presented as a definition list.

Notes:

Includes index.

Digitized and made available by: Books24x7.com.

ISBN:

1-280-56819-4

9786610568192

1-930919-61-1

OCLC:

228139302