The document discusses the evolution of online help from traditional user guides to more task-oriented and contextual help. It notes that due to decreasing attention spans and impatience, help needs to be quick, relevant, and avoid switching between documentation. Newer approaches integrate tutorials and help directly into products using techniques like stepped contextual help. The document promotes an approach called WalkHub that implements topic-oriented, minimalist help using single-sourcing and re-use principles to provide a guided tour through tasks and functions.

1. The Evolution of Online Help
from user guides to task oriented help
Diana Lakatos, technical writer

2. What’s more important:
UX or documentation?

3. UX
visual design
interaction design
information architecture
usability

4. familiarity of a user with an interface is based on user’s previous
experience with similar interfaces
good UX builds on similar interfaces
chasing cultural consciousness
Are you prepared to ignore some of your customers or do
you create backup plans for the people that have a
different experience profile?
Why would you need documentation?

5. Cognitive load on the Internet

6. What is cognitive load?
What are the consequences?
consuming information in a hurry
becoming impatient
wanting instant gratification
attention span decreases
no time for deep thinking
no time for learning

7. Make it quick, make it relevant,
otherwise no one will care.

8. separate piece of documentation
switching back and forth
interpret and remember steps
Manuals & video
tutorials

9. Continuously
changing products
documentation only works if it’s up-
to-date
keeping screenshots and videos
up-to-date is time-consuming
even small changes on the interface
can be visible in many related
tutorials
users have to abstract information
in order to apply it

10. Communities & collaboration
open source software (collaborate,
reuse)
documentation for open source
projects typically written by a small
group of people
tools?
reuse?

11. Stepped
contextual help
user guides, video tutorials
contextual help
stepped contextual help

12. Our approach based on
DITA principles

13. WalkHub
framework for integrated tutorials, GPS for the Internet
Drupal
Selenium testing format/recorder
Joyride.JS
open source product

14. Topic-orientation
topic
task
concept
reference

15. Minimalism
Chunking
Prerequisites
Walkthrough Suites
Single-sourcing
Community
Re-use

16. WalkHub workshop
14:30, Ursa Minor