The Best Help Manual… Ever?
In the world of software and ever-increasing complexity in software, help manuals with proper grammar, clearly written language, and even better visual demonstrations of functionality are a hard thing to come by. Should software even have a manual? How would you explain advanced functionality to users? As I’m finishing the 50+ page to the InBloom Shop Software and wondering how useful users will find it. Do users even read the instruction manual anymore? I imagine with so many useful applications on the precipice of simple design with useful functionality a la BaseCamp, Wordpress, and others, is it better just to pass along a cheat sheet of useful commands and let users stumble on advanced functionality on their own?37Signals discusses this in their book Getting Real. This quote strikes me:
Strive to build a tool that requires zero training.
But in the end, even the venerable 37signals needs a Help section. They discuss this more here. If you have examples of documentation that you find instrumental and helpful to understanding software, please post a comment and lets discuss.
