April Meeting Review: No User Left Behind –
Wakeman and Bryant Demonstrate Help That
Is Helpful

by Jim Korth, PR Committee member

Users constantly complain that they can’t find answers to their simple questions. As innocent users begin searching the help file, they get ensnared by needing to select “Related Topic” or “See Also” links. Creating, maintaining and enhancing your document set become costly. Designing online help that is truly effective in delivering answers to varied audiences is a continuing challenge.

Marlowe Wakeman and Marc Bryant were the featured speakers at the April LSC meeting (shown here with Elisa Miller, 1st Vice President and Program Chair). They gave an enlightening presentation on creating help that users will actually use and for which managers will be happy to pay.

In “No User Left Behind: Designing Online Help That Is Helpful,” Marlowe and Marc described a recent three-month period in which four projects shipped, including two new projects and two overhauls that included back-end architecture and a user interface. Their goals included reducing the time required to develop their help document, improving the user experience, adding value to the product with a solution-driven document, and providing the same level of detail that the user would expect from a user guide. Their primary tools were ePublisher Pro and MadCap Flare.

How did they start? First, they determined their requirements. Next, they chose their tools, identified their users’ needs, organized their information by context, and designed their delivery system. Finally, the design must be tested.

At each step, critical questions must be answered. Do you need to provide printed documentation, and do you need to fit the new design into an existing look and feel that users are accustomed to? Is there an existing tool we need to be aware of? Designing, configuring tools and tweaking processes may take up to a month at the outset.

Regarding tools, what type of product are you documenting and will you need to provide different versions of help? How predictable is your release cycle and will the same group of writers be working on the product from one release to the next?

Think about your users’ needs. Who are your typical users, and what are their daily procedures? What are the users’ points of pain? Technical support and product management people can help provide answers. What does the user want, and what will the user understand?

Evaluate short-term needs versus long-term needs. Consider layering your information so the user can easily choose and control what to see next. Perform usability tests early in the release cycle.

At the end of their program, Marlowe and Marc left us with some valuable Marlowe Maxims:

• Never forget your team’s skills and experience
• Never lose sight of your audience
• Remember that more steps mean more planning.

With these good practices in hand, we can be confident that no user will be left behind.