What is contextual sensitive help?
Context Sensitive assistance is information provided by a software application for users based on user activity. Its purpose is to provide relevant information quickly and efficiently. The factors that need to be considered when designing the Help Context System are the trigger mechanism, user interface, content and customization options. The primary challenges include understanding the user's intention and the cost of the help system.
The starting mechanisms are the means by which the user asks for help. Typical triggers include the F1 key, the symbol on the toolbar and the right mouse. Starters may also include combinations of their own keys, some spoken commands using speech recognition, touch screen or other friendly interfaces. The built -in context sensitive assistance will try to answer the most likely Quetiv of any given point in the software by providing the instructional text as the user works. Customization options provide the user the ability to turn off FUNcubs that are unnecessary or annoying.
The content is crucial for the help project. Software has traditionally directed users to complete official documentation. These documentation often had examples of walking, syntax rules and cross references. Since the Internet has been available for many users, software companies have provided their online help systems. Some companies have left their own help content and instead directed users to the search engine.
In 2011, some observers believed that the development of contextual aid with descent. Instead of documentation, software suppliers began to offer questions and answers to these formats. In these cases, the user learns the task, but is unlikely to be aware of the refinement. As a result, many users could use less than full program.
Other experts claimed that users stopped reading inhands. Their focus groups indicate that users prefer information delivered in the conversational style. These experts described complete documentation as waste and stated that it prevented their ability to compete. The lack of documentation was created by the publishing industry specializing in third -party software manuals.
Web pages using Content Management Systems (CMS) can be placed to add useful help sensitive systems. CMS pages store content in databases and formatting and layout of websites are separate from content. Although these sites are not applications, the sensitive context can be useful when navigating large sites. CMS used as user interfaces for applications or other database solutions can help reduce the cost of these work demanding systems.