Easy Help files – Writing Documentation People Can Actually Read
If the world’s population was shrunk to one hundred people, ten years ago only one would have owned a computer. Nowadays, at least four would. Guess what? Only one of those hundred would have a college education during either time frame. Despite this, help files for software are generally atrocious and fail to be easy to read by the majority of software users.
While an easy help file for a CAD program may never exist, why should help files for a simple program like webmail be so amazingly hard to read for the average user? There are many steps that can be taken to help make help files easy. These can range from content flow and intuitive interfaces to simplified wording and grammar.
Additionally, usage of picture files and animation files can make a help file easier to digest for a confused user. The following tips will help software developers make an easy help file. First, make help files easy to access. It would be easy for developers to adopt a universal approach to help file access. Many programs now tie the F1 key to easy help file access along with putting “Help” as the right most option on a tool bar.
Unfortunately, there are those who simply lack the inclination to tie easy access to help files into their programs. If it’s not right under the nose of a user, expect a service call. You can nearly eliminate the “where’s my help file” concerns by helping support easy help file access standards. Second, give your help files an easy to use search and index feature.
While an experienced user knows that for html and rich textbox forms, an easy tap on the combination of Control and F keys will prompt a find box, most computer users rely on a clearly labeled and easy to find search box to type in. While it’s easy to omit a search interface, it’s mutually easy for a user to give up on finding a help file and instead opt for the easy solution of contact you for customer support.
Third, include illustrations and video clips. While twenty years ago it was no easy feat to include even a simple diagram or animations on computers that were capable only of the CGA or text-only display, ten years ago the VGA and SVGA standards were firmly rooted. It was easy to put in pictures once the need to space out a combination of ASCII characters was replaced by screenshots and paint programs. Help files for some reason still are under-illustrated.
Perhaps it’s a remnant from the era of 3.5” diskettes which had limited space, but since those days have come the CD and DVD. While an average program may take up 140 megabytes of space on a CD, it doesn’t take a math major to realize how easy it would be to take advantage of the other 520+ megabytes to throw in a few illustrations in help files.
Fourth, if your programming budget and time frame permit, include an automated wizard. Remember Clippy, the Microsoft office paper clip buddy? He would float in the corner making suggestions. Experienced users despised him, but novices loved his easy to understand suggestions and embedded help file, that was presented without minimal thought effort.
Lastly, have the content of your help files reviewed by someone who speaks easy-to-understand styles of writing and content organization. Overly academic help files can be well neigh useless to a user looking for easy solutions to their problems. As a result, investing the extra cost to find a less than stellar nerd can provide a world of ease to your user base.
Heeding these tips will help insure that your help files are easy to find, simple to understand, and easy to navigate. Easy help files reduce the overhead required to address frivolous service and support tickets, and are well worth the extra investment in both content organization and preparation which in turn yields software producers more profit.
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