(photo by solutiongrove.net)

It's my job as a technical writer to come up with a good documentation or help section of the application our company is developing.  Two resources from the .LRN Community have given me insights on Help Systems:  LMS Help Sections – Comparison and Introduction to Embedded Help and Examples for .LRN.

Most users don’t use the help section or, at least, avoid online help systems because It’s too much effort on the part of the user and the time invested isn’t returned with good results. To add to that switching back and forth between the application and the help system poses difficulty to the user.  Their attention is split between the help system and the application itself.  Thus, users are dissatisfied with the help systems. 

From my observation, not all applications have effective help systems.  Some applications have online help that only offer “help” on how to search, not actually providing contextual help or help that the user actually needs.  Others do offer contextual help but the help links and buttons are not visible and consistent enough through the application.  And even if there are accessible help links, some users are too lazy to click that button to find help.  Embedded help is so much better since it gets the needed information closer to the user.  “Embedded help provides the user with assistive instruction aside the interaction.  It is easier for the user to relate the instruction with how it applies to the web application’s functionalities than a disconnected FAQ or help section.  Information is moving out of the separate online help systems into the interfaces.”

In Moodle, help is not that accessible because, as seen and mentioned in the first resource I cited above, "there is no 'help' link linking to a help section; the only help available within the platform is linked from a question mark."  On the positive side, I must commend that the Moodle help is very contextual, so users don't need to spend too much time looking for the right information they need and the help section opens in a pop up window, so users' attention is not split between the application and the help system. 

Perhaps, some improvement will do because there seems to be a lack of obvious link that leads to a help section. And maybe some embeddable help will actually help because with the information or guide already at hand while the user goes around the application, the user has an instant guide on what to and doesn't need to keep searching for a quick help.

Got insights and opinions, too?