Well, we've heard the excuses...
- No budget for user assistance. We can do without.
- The developers can write the help.
- We'll develop the software, then think of the help, if we get to it.
- Do we even need help? This product is so intuitive.
- It's too early to think about help?
Why do we need help?
Bottom line is: our users want and need it. What is it and why do we care? Well, our users care and our users need it. We've seen help in software we use daily and on help/support sites. We may not always need it, but we rely on it when we do need it. Help pages are not only used for product assistance, but for support, sales, marketing, and much more. The value is measurable, profitable, and expected by our users. Users expect it and need to be able to find the information they need when they need it.
What is User Assistance, anyway?
User Assistance (aka help) includes some or all of the following:
🗒 Note: you can select any of the images to enlarge them. Now that's helpful! 😀
- In-app help that you can pull up in the app to get some guidance.
- Any content that appears in the app: tooltips, onscreen text, placeholder text, instructions, user interface labels, fields, and more.
Literally, any text that appears in the user interface.
How the heck would we even know what all the Apple iPhone settings are if there wasn't some help? How do I turn off that darn Live Photo!!!???
- Product documentation (user/admin/developer guides). For example, the SAP Help Portal.
- How-to videos, demos, tutorials.
User Assistance developers ARE the user
As intuitive as you think a product is, without a user assistance developer to work with developers, product owners, UX Design, and all the stakeholders, the user won't get what he needs from us. We ARE the first end users. We use the software and can tell you where it's not intuitive before it goes out the door. We can ensure consistency in language, branding, terminology, UX design, and more.
AI and Bots can only do so much
All the hype about AI and Bots is abundant. But who will train and quality check what these bots are coming up with? AI uses existing content out there. Is it correct? Is it hallucinating? Is it what the user needs?
Someone (a human) needs to plan the content strategy, create the structure, and put together correct and accurate content for the appropriate audience. Every website and app bombards you with chatbots that can't answer your question and empty offers to solve your problems. Let me write a text or email for you. Let me create your resume. Let me do brain surgery on you. These bots use scripted, repetitive, unnatural text, and seem to have no common sense.
Sometimes a bot greets me with, "I'm Alex..." I don't know if this is a digital assistant or a human. I ask it, "Are you human?". She responds with "Hello, here are some suggested answers to your question". She lists several irrelevant responses. All I need to know is ARE-YOU-HUMAN? I ask for some hotel options in Spain. To which Alex responds, "Do you want a hotel near Spain?" Um, yes. Then I simply ask for a live agent. Much better.
Content is king
We know that providing users with the right content at the right time is essential. Read the customer satisfaction survey results! The type of content we include in our software determines user trust, confidence, and affects their perception of your software and your company. Does Alex give you a whole lot of confidence? Not really.
Listen to your users
We've run dozens of surveys, asked for feedback, talked to users directly, and conducted user research. It all comes back to providing useful and timely content to our users. The users demand it and get frustrated when they can't find it. They want to use the software and easily and quickly do their job. We must enable them to be productive and successful. It's a worthwhile investment for your users and for your company. Don't skimp on proper user assistance. Your customers won't be happy!
About the Author
Sophia Moustakas-Marx is a User Assistance Development Architect and UX Designer. She's been a passionate user advocate for 20+ years (I stopped counting). She's contributed to intuitive software design, user assistance, building bridges, not silos, and helping businesses make the world run better. She's a Design Thinking Coach, Content Strategist, a coach and mentor, blogger, and User Assistance expert.
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