Help and Documentation
It’s best if an interface doesn't need any additional explanation. However, it may be necessary to provide documentation to help users understand how to complete their tasks.
We should try to make the interface self-explanatory so that users don't have to read docs or send support requests.
But it's not always possible. Some systems are complicated. Some involve a lot of legal information, e.g., in bank apps. Our goal is to make it easy to search the documentation and show the right hints or guidance at the right place at the right time.
Ways of providing documentation
There are many ways to provide help, starting from a simple tooltip ending with a phone call.
Types of help
How exactly the help should look like depends on the interface. What is worth mentioning however, is that NNGroup distinguishes two types of help: proactive and reactive.
Proactive help is provided before the user has encountered a problem, in order to prevent issues. It includes onboarding tutorials and contextual tips.
In contrast, reactive help includes materials such as documentation, videos, or even tutorials for those situations when users have an issue and they seek out advice to address it.
To me, these two terms sound too complicated and technical. Reactive help? If I ask somebody whether their app provides reactive help, would they understand what I mean?
I prefer to refer to the first type as providing help when users are in the context, while the second type is considered standalone documentation. Keep in mind that proactive help also includes providing examples of situations where you may show users something that is not directly related to the context they are working in. For instance, you could display an important notification.
Well, I'm not sure which term suits better, but I would still call it in-place/context/active help and a standalone documentation.
Important to know
First of all, you might have already heard that the best UI is when there is no UI (= users don't need to do anything). Then, the second expression - "UI is like a joke. If you need to explain it, then it's bad".
Taking these two expressions into account, I came to the conclusion that...
The best type of documentation is the absence of its need.
Of course we live in a world where there is no perfection. But what I want to point out is that the more you need to explain, the more hints you need to provide, and the bigger your standalone documentation is — the higher the chances that the usability of your interface needs to be improved.
Yes, some systems are complex, and you can't get away without any docs. Or, to be precise, some systems have to be complex by their nature. But keep in mind that if, for a relatively small UI, you overwhelm users with hints, and you yourself keep on forgetting how it works, then it might be a sign that something is wrong.
In our practice section, the first page that we'll work on is occupied by documentation (including video) on 50% of the screen. While the task is to schedule a post on social networks. Something immediately felt wrong.