Help vision?

Subject: Help vision?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 11:42:56 -0400


Andy McAleer wondered: <<Does anyone have a vision, however sketchy, of the future of online help?>>

At some point in the distant future, humans will have evolved to the point where even software developers recognize the need to produce usable software. <g> At that point, based on careful study of users, they'll produce software that needs only about 10% of the help text we currently provide, and that 10% will be fully embedded in the interface, perhaps as wizards or other assistants*, thereby eliminating what we now consider "online help". Oh yeah... and cats and dogs will live together in perfect harmony. <g>

* Finally recognizing the dream that computers should exist to help us perform our work, rather than forcing us to change how we think and act to compensate for inadequate programming.

<<Are big software houses going to continue to post more of their help topics online (thereby making updated help always available to users)?>>

This trend will certainly continue, but it's a stupid approach from the user's perspective. Though it's true that this should be _an option_ and that updated help files should ship with each software update (along with the option for downloading a company's full knowledge base for a product, if so desired), I've heard rumors that some people believe that online will be the only option that's necessary. For the next decade or so, that's simply stupid. Many people still rely on dialup connections, many of us work (at least occasionally) in areas where we don't even have dialup Web access, and there's no indication that server crashes or denial of service attacks are becoming any less frequent. Under those circumstances, Web-only won't work.

<<Do the promises of such server-based help actually bear fruit?>>

Apart from the above quibbles, well-designed server-based help should be just as effective as well-designed traditional online help. Of course, this assumes that the application developers keep the software (context IDs etc.) in synch with the Web site URLs. I don't have much faith that this will happen.

<<Are technical writers actively researching the impact of Microsoft's vision for help, as documented for the next release of their operating system, codenamed Longhorn?>>

The smart ones are. (I don't do much online help these days, so I'm not smart. <g>) Personally, I think it's long past time we did away with proprietary compiled help formats and stuck with W3C-standard HTML. This provides maximum utility, maximum longevity, and minimum dependence on proprietary authoring tools or proprietary operating system quirks that change from year to year.

<<Is help going to be replaced by some other way of communicating with users?>>

It will all be outsourced to foreign lands, requiring us to log into ESL Web sites hosted in parts of the world most of us have never heard of. <g>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
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References:
Help vision: From: Andy McAleer

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