Is the Help Helpful?: How to Create Online Help That Meets Your Users' Needs

Jean Hollis Weber

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商品描述

Description:

Is the Help Helpful? presents the full cycle of help content development, regardless of the operating system running the application, the type of help being produced, or the tools used to produce it.

In this book, you'll discover:

  • The 10 most common complaints that users have with online help, the causes of the underlying problems, and ways to avoid those problems
  • The 11 steps in the ideal help development process, their benefits, and the problems that arise when a step is left out
  • Techniques for planning, writing, editing, reviewing, and testing online help
  • Sample plans and specifications for your help project


Other books teach how to use a particular online help authoring tool, but they don't teach how to plan, write, edit, and test the help system being developed. Is the Help Helpful? supplements tool-specific instructions by presenting the basics of help content development, regardless of the operating system running the application, the type of help being produced, or the tools used to produce it. It is intended for technical writing students, project managers, writers, editors, and others involved in the production of online help.

 

 

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Planning an Online Help Project
Online help is as much a part of the user interface as windows, dialog boxes, or Web pages. It must be planned and designed as part of the project, with similar consideration for users' requirements. This chapter describes an ideal planning process, the roles of the people involved in producing online help, the time required, and the work sequence for help development.

Chapter 2: Analyzing Audiences and Tasks
Online help must be designed to meet its users' needs, which may be quite different from the needs of the software developers. Most users want task-oriented help; some users may also want function-oriented help. Developers typically want function-oriented help. This chapter describes techniques for analyzing audiences and their tasks, including developing user profiles and scenarios.

Chapter 3: Developing Specifications
High-level specifications should include the help format, information types, topic types, navigation and accessibility aids, media types, and other presentation factors; how the help is linked to the application; how the help coordinates with any other documentation for the software; and the tools to be used in developing the help. Detailed specifications get into the specifics of writing conventions, terminology, design and layout, the navigation scheme, and the content of various topic types; they usually include a style guide for the project.

Chapter 4: Prototyping the Help System
You can build a prototype of your help system in several stages. In the early, high-level concept and design prototype, be sure to include examples of all relevant navigational aids, topic types, and links between topics. Later, as you outline and map the help project, you can build a more detailed contents prototype.

Chapter 5: Avoiding Common Problems
To develop truly helpful online help, writers need to think like potential users, include information to answer their questions at an appropriate level of detail, and make the information easy to find. This chapter describes the 10 most common complaints that users have with online help, the underlying problems that lead to these complaints, and ways to identify the problems and avoid or fix them.

Chapter 6: Producing the Table of Contents and Index
Readers use the table of contents or the index to look up information not immediately associated with the visible window or dialog box, when they want answers to "can I?" or "how do I?" or "where is?" questions. This chapter describes ways to make the table of contents and index useful from the readers' point of view, so they can find information quickly and easily.

Chapter 7: Providing Navigation and Context
Navigation includes all the ways for readers to move around in a help system and find the information they want. Context helps readers keep track of where they are, how they got there, and what happens next. This chapter describes some methods for providing navigation and context.

Chapter 8: Meeting the Needs of Novices to Experts
Readers often complain that the online help contains too little information; it gives only the obvious instructions or it describes the fields but gives no clue how to use them. Other readers complain that the help contains too much information; they can't find the answer to their questions in all the details. This chapter describes some common problems and suggests ways you can provide help that meets the needs of a range of users, at the right level of detail for each of them.

Chapter 9: Linking from Application to Help
Linking from the application to the help requires cooperation with programmers, as well as consideration of users' needs. This chapter describes different ways of linking, the pros and cons of each, and the type of information that writers and programmers need to share to make the system work.

Chapter 10: Copyediting and Production Editing
Copyediting should go beyond grammar and punctuation to revising the language used and the presentation of the material, to ensure it meets the requirements in the specifications and style guide. Production editing is done at the end of the development phase, checking that the topics in the help system display as they should, and the navigation works properly.

Chapter 11: Usability Testing on a Budget
If you avoid usability testing your help system because you think it takes too long and costs too much, read this chapter to find out how to find 80% of problems quickly and inexpensively.

Appendix A: Sample Plans and Specifications
Get going quickly with these sample plans and specifications. Fill in the blanks in the files on the website.

Appendix B: Help Types and Tools
A summary of some common types of help, their pros and cons, and the tools you can use to produce them. Covers Windows, Macintosh, and Linux environments.

Appendix C: For More Information
Books and Web pages with more details on topics covered in this book.

Appendix D: Glossary
Terms used in this book.

Appendix E: Checklists
Reminders of what you need to do at each step of the help planning and development cycle.

商品描述(中文翻譯)

描述:「Is the Help Helpful?」介紹了幫助內容開發的完整週期,不論應用程式運行的作業系統、正在製作的幫助類型或使用的工具。在這本書中,你將會發現:

- 用戶對線上幫助的十個最常見抱怨,造成這些問題的原因以及避免這些問題的方法。
- 理想的幫助開發過程中的十一個步驟,它們的好處以及當一個步驟被省略時可能出現的問題。
- 規劃、撰寫、編輯、審查和測試線上幫助的技巧。
- 幫助專案的範例計劃和規格。

其他書籍教授如何使用特定的線上幫助創作工具,但它們並不教授如何規劃、撰寫、編輯和測試正在開發的幫助系統。 「Is the Help Helpful?」通過介紹幫助內容開發的基礎知識,補充了特定工具的使用指南。它適用於技術寫作學生、專案經理、作家、編輯和其他參與線上幫助製作的人員。

目錄:

第一章:規劃線上幫助專案
線上幫助與使用者界面一樣重要,必須作為專案的一部分進行規劃和設計,並考慮使用者的需求。本章描述了理想的規劃過程、參與線上幫助製作的人員角色、所需時間以及幫助開發的工作順序。

第二章:分析受眾和任務
線上幫助必須設計以滿足使用者的需求,這些需求可能與軟體開發人員的需求有很大不同。大多數使用者希望得到以任務為導向的幫助;有些使用者可能還需要以功能為導向的幫助。開發人員通常希望得到以功能為導向的幫助。本章介紹了分析受眾和其任務的技巧,包括開發使用者概要和場景。

第三章:制定規格
高層規格應該包括幫助格式、資訊類型、主題類型、導航和可訪問性輔助工具、媒體類型和其他呈現因素;幫助如何與應用程式相關聯;幫助如何與軟體的其他文件協調;以及開發幫助所使用的工具。詳細規格則涉及寫作慣例、術語、設計和版面配置、導航方案以及各種主題類型的內容;通常還包括專案的樣式指南。

第四章:幫助系統的原型
你可以在幾個階段建立幫助系統的原型。在早期的高層概念和設計原型中,你可以建立幫助系統的原型。