Duration: 2 days recommended (shorter versions available, but limits coverage and practice)
Hands-on? Yes (many practice exercises)
Delivery: Web conferencing
What is Embedded Assistance?
Embedded help is user assistance that is part of the real estate and behavior of the user interface of a software application, rather than a separate window that floats above, and sometimes behind, a software applcation. It is help that is designed as software. Not as an afterthought. Not as part of a separate development effort. But as part of the same development, indeed part of the same code, as the application itself.
Objectives
Through discussion and practice, you will:
- Understand the purposes and goals of embedded assistance
- Review types of on-screen user assistance: definitions, examples, and solutions
- Learn practical strategies for designing and writing assistance in the product interface
- Understand the role of context-sensitivity in designing embedded assistance
- Understand user experience research that affects how you integrate online user assistance
- Understand and practice the process of developing embedded assistance with both new and existing interfaces
- Learn about tools for creating wireframes and prototypes
Important Ideas and Questions
During the course, we will cover common ideas and questions about building assistance into a product, such as:
- What are the most common and effective types of embedded content? Should any types of content be avoided?
- Why and when should you include content in the interface? How much is too much?
- How do you go about creating an assistance architecture?
- Does interface content ever affect the design of the user interface?
- Should interface content change based on user actions?
- What are the best practices for writing in restricted spaces like a user interface?
- What are the best practices for writing highly visible labels, such as page descriptions and field descriptions?
- What about task-based interfaces – how should they be handled?
- What processes should a writer and developer follow? How should they work together?