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Subject:Context Sensitive Help or the Psychic Hotline? From:"Mark X. Dempsey" <mxd2 -at- OSI -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 30 Jul 1999 10:30:04 -0700
A recent discussion of context-sensitive help prompts me to write. I'm
curious to know how much users (or listmembers) actually use
context-sensitive help.
A previous poster says that it depends on the audience and the
intelligence with which the system is designed.
I say everything depends on the audience, and no amount of intelligence
can make you able to second-guess whether a help user is interested in
formatting or formula information in an Excel cell, for example. I'm
sure there are work-arounds, but they devolve to an index, or at least a
table of contents, in the final analysis.
Furthermore, the money spent developing and maintaining dancing
paperclips would be better spent making a good index, IMHO.
Those opinions stated, however, I understand not everyone gathers
information like I do. There may even be a place for talking
help/tutorials (cf. Quicken '99).
Any stats or anecdotal evidence either way?
--
Regards,
-- mailto:Mark -dot- Dempsey -at- osi -dot- com
--
-- Mark Dempsey
-- Technical Publications
-- Objective Systems Integrators
-- 110 Woodmere, Folsom, CA 95630
-- 916.353.2400 x 4777
