Designing Help Text

Even the best designed sites or applications may require help text of whole help areas. Here we lay out the options and give some useful pointers.

In an ideal world help text would be unnecessary - users would never get stuck in an application or site. It should be enough to provide clear design, carefully chosen titles and labels for the various functions, appropriate field prompts when user entry is required, helpful feedback, a glossary, and 'embedded' help such as default values, example input, on-screen step-by-step instructions and explanatory text next to fields or functions.

Help features should certainly be a last resort. Anyone embarking on adding it to an application or site should be sure that they have already followed the best practise listed above. In most cases (certainly online) a help option should not be necessary.

But it is still true that sometimes it is required. Some users will have difficulty no matter how effectively and throughtfully an interface is built. Others will need assistance whilst learning how to use a complex and extensive application that contains a number of features.

Given that help text might be required, how is it best implemented? As mentioned above, it is preferable to include as much assistance as possible permanently on-screen. If real estate is an issue, pop-up or rollover text can be used to provide further information, as long as it is clear this option is available to the user and accessibility considerations are taken into account.

The alternative is designing a seperate 'help' area, a solution that is fraught with difficulties. These include the probable need to open new windows (in order to allow side-by-side comparisons) and the increased demand on the user that comes with asking them to master a whole new interface and navigation system (that of the help area itself). But again, sometimes there is no option, an application is so complex there is no alternative.

For those biting the bullet and designing seperate help areas, obviously it is important to follow standard usability guidelines just as one would when designing the rest of a site or application. It can also be useful to follow these more specific guidelines:

Keep help information as contextual as possible

When the user calls for help, it is usually with a problem relating to the screen he or she is currently working from. With this in mind, it is obviously beneficial to make any initial advice tailored to the specific difficulties that may be encountered on this page.

Don't over-use jargon or cross referencing

If the user has resorted to the help option, it stands to reason that they are confused and need reassurance. The last thing they require is inexplicable jargon and extensive cross-referencing to other definitions or areas of interest - this only leads to the user getting lost all over again within the help text itself. Good help text states the required procedure in plain English and stands on its own.

Understand the user's viewpoint

User's requiring help are not necessarily interested in the finer points of a product's features - they wish to get a job done. Help should concentrate on meeting needs in these terms, and explaining what actions are required from the user, rather than detailing exactly how the various features of an application work.

Provide 'walkthroughs' if necessary

If the user is required to follow a number of steps in order to achieve an end goal, if possible provide a working example of the process within the help area. Ideally the user will try the steps themselves. Alternatively a step-by-step illustration can be provided, although the former option is preferable.