RE: Help vision

Subject: RE: Help vision
From: mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 10:18:52 -0400




Nuckols, Kenneth M was heard to say:

> The software and hardware sides of the computer industry are driven by
> one segment and one segment only: computer games. Game developers and
> game players alike demand more, better, faster, louder, brighter and
> better performance, graphics, sound, realism, "...life, the
> universe and
> everything."
>
> So why not look to them as a model of online help as well?
[...]

> By the time you finish this opening sequence, you pretty much know the
> basics of playing the game. Upon reaching the voyage destination,
> however, I learned that the proactive help doesn't end just yet. Each
> time you come across some new type of feature in the game, a voiceover
> narration and subtle pop-ups help you figure out how to navigate and
> complete the task, quest, or whatever it is you're trying to do.
>
> And--just in case you're wondering--once you've done this with your
> initial in-game character or avatar, you have the option to
> disable the
> tutorial when starting additional in-game characters.
>
> The other game's help system is not quite so elaborate, but
> it does have
> tiny popup icons located at the bottom of the screen that appear each
> time you encounter a new type of event, task, quest, or encounter.
> Clicking these icons brings up a help bubble that guides you
> through the
> task.
>
> To supplement this help system that really becomes part of the game
> environment, there is an extensive knowledge base of help (probably
> XML-based though I'm not certain) available, as well as the ability to
> log inquiries for items you cannot find in the help system.
[snip-diddly]


The help in these games... from your description, it seems to
depend on recognition of the user's status in many ways:

- how much they already know
- where they are in the game/program
- where they've been in the program
- how they are interacting currently.

In other words, the primary usefulness and innovation -- the
"added value", if you will -- beyond text and audio text, is
the intelligence that determines what the user seems to need.
(I trust that we all remember the horror that was "Clippy",
the Microsoft Office assistant?? Obviously, the game developers
learned from that, and won't be repeating anything like it...)

Here in the "real world" of business-to-business and government
crypto and data-security, our little product development
division has a hierarchy of "requirements" for the current
project, ranging from the driving customer's "absolutely
must be in there", through various levels of "really should
be included/fixed", "would be awfully nice if...", down to
"waaahahahahaha what are you smokin'?"

If I asked for the kind of intelligence that could analyze
the user's progress and anticipate their assistance needs,
I'd be asking for capability and effort that would dwarf
the actual money-making product development.

In my current project, I can't even get the developers to
remove redundant/outdated/test commands and functions that
the user doesn't need. There's no time.
At today's status-of-the-deadline, actions as simple as
disabling some questionable interface items are way down the
difficulty spectrum from unthinkably labor-intensive requests
like my couple of dozen real usability suggestions that I've
already submitted. By comparison with what you describe, my
humble suggestions were utterly trivial. So, if I were to
propose the kind of system you describe, I think several
somebodies would ask if I had stopped taking my meds.

With that said, I surely would love to be part of that kind
of development, but I don't see the path from where we are
today (command-line interface and separate, non-context WebHelp)
to the kind of sophistication and subtlety you describe.

More likely, in fact, our products will filter over to the
gamer side, both in their consoles and at the server-farms.
(Secure authentication, non-repudiation, deployement of millions
of profiles, accelerated SSL/SSH, etc., etc.) That latter trend
will keep me and my co-workers employed, but I'd certainly
enjoy creating the kind of Help that you describe... while
collecting that paycheck.

Cheers,

Kevin

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