Re: Task-based vs. descriptive online help

["David McGill" <David -dot- McGill -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>]

Hi Christine,
I agree with your strategy. What I've done in the past is write the
task-specific instructions, and then provide a button after major steps
labelled "Show me". If a user wanted more guidance they could click the
button and a large screen capture would appear illustrating the specific
step.

    I did this for an SAP application which had a very confusing interface,
the "Show me" provided clarity to a user who couldn't find a particular
feature on the interface.

 Something else to consider is the size of the help window. If the default
is just the instructions, then the window can be relatively unobtrusive.
Once you include big graphics (as in the system you've inherited) then it
becomes hard to see the underlying interface. Hope this helps.

Regards

Dave McGill




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