What's Hot in the World of User Assistance

Introduction

This is the time of year when WinWriters is busy sifting through the numerous proposals and suggestions for next February's conference. This fascinating collection of papers offers a unique insight into the latest views, ideas, and recent project experiences of many of our colleagues within the Help world. It's also an excellent indicator of what some of the top professionals in our field rate as the most significant upcoming tools, technologies, and techniques.

As we work on the proposals to develop the best possible program for the 2002 WinWriters Conference, here are a collection of observations on the topics that will help shape next year's event.

General Trends

First off, it's encouraging to note a significant increase in user-oriented activities. As we move through a transition period in terms of new Help technologies, many organizations seem to be taking the opportunity to re-appraise the needs of the user and to test how real people are actually using the online assistance that we provide. This is reflected in the number of proposals that we have received concerning navigation strategies, information design, usability testing, and site visits.

Secondly, there is continuing recognition of the increasing range of different skills authors need these days in order to be successful professionals (this is reinforced by the 2001 WinWriters Skills and Technology Survey). In addition to the writing, editing, and information design skills that we have always known we have needed, Help development now frequently requires expertise in HTML/XML technology, scripting, CSS, multimedia, databases, search tools, and even a basic understanding of application programming. Some of our most interesting proposals have addressed the issue of how you can address these challenges successfully, both within single- and multi-author environments.

Finally, we are seeing a gradual blurring of the distinction between application user interfaces (be they desktop or web-based) and user assistance. The notion of a separate Help system running in its own independent window is regarded by some professionals as outmoded, and a variety of interesting new approaches are being proposed. These range from Help embedded in a dedicated pane within the application, through to user assistance that is merged within the interface of the application itself.

Technology Highlights

Microsoft Help 2.0 continues to generate a lot of interest as people speculate on the various benefits and issues associated with the upcoming new format. By February, tools that authors can begin to experiment with are likely to be available, and a number of speakers are planning useful guidance and instruction. My own view is that the new format offers a greater degree of control and flexibility to users of Help, but may not radically change the authoring experience of most Help developers. For example, the new "Collections" technology, which makes possible the development of extremely large modular Help systems, will probably be of benefit to only a minority of authoring teams.

Of course, a major trend these days is that of applications moving from the desktop to the Web (or intranet). We're seeing indications that there are significant issues and challenges for Help authors associated with this migration. Where organizations are requiring "zero client installation," it means that Help authors cannot allow their users to download the plug-ins and applets required by many of the major browser-based Help technologies. This places restrictions on the User Assistance that these authors are able to provide, and they need to be very clear on the client installation constraints before selecting a Help tool. A strategy to consider is the use of server-based Help technology, where the generation of a TOC and index is done remotely from the client computer. This offers the advantage of being able to track users' requests for information and to generate reports, and I believe this is potentially one of the most interesting current areas of Help development.

Emerging and established web technologies continue to feature heavily in the proposals that we have received. These are important not only to those of us writing for the Web, but increasingly for authors of desktop applications too. Although WinHelp is still alive and kicking (the 2001 WinWriters Skills and Technologies Survey shows 43% of Windows Help authors still supporting WinHelp 4), HTML-based Help is fast-becoming predominant. This means that most Help content is now written in HTML, which enables authors to exploit technologies such as Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and forms to enrich the experience of their users.

There are a number of other new areas of technology that have recurred within speakers' proposals. An increasing number of Help professionals are getting involved with projects for mobile and wireless applications; their experiences are of great interest, since there are currently relatively few public examples on which to base new work. Within the past few months Apple has released the eagerly awaited Mac OS X operating system with its improved Help technology, and for those of us who have to cater for multiple platforms, the forthcoming release of Sun's JavaHelp 2.0 will be worth checking out.

Case Studies

We've received a diverse range of case study proposals. It's interesting to see how these demonstrate and further develop many of the new techniques and strategies discussed at the WinWriters Conference earlier this year. Reflecting a recent surge in uptake of Microsoft's HTML Help 1.x format, most of the projects use this technology. However, some authors are being required to use a single information source for the various Help formats needed by different operating systems. Successful techniques for single-sourcing user information are being eagerly sought by many software companies at present, because of the potential time and cost savings that can result.

Closing Comments

Despite the current economic slowdown, this year is one of continuing change within our industry. Most authors are being required to expand their range of skills and to go beyond the traditional models of online publishing. And with knowledge being increasingly recognized as the key to success within the modern economy, the work we do as authors and communicators is more valuable than ever.

It's been fun working through all the interesting proposals submitted for the conference, and we're looking forward to developing them into a program that represents the most relevant, innovative, interesting, and exciting work of today's top Help professionals. See you in Seattle next February!

Matthew Ellison
Conference Director, WinWriters