New Help Feature for System Windows

Hi, there!

Try it out: system-window-help.cs





What do you think? Is it helpful? Do we want to clean-up some balloon helps in our tools and use it?

Best,
Marcel

Here a more eye-friendly overlay:



Best,
Marcel

I like the help box because it can let newbies learn what's in each
pane quickly and easily.

However, its quite distracting for those balloons to keep popping up
after I've already learned them.


On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 4:09 AM, marcel.taeumel <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Chris,

how can we approach the learning problem, which is shared by the current balloon help system?

Best,
Marcel

I like Google's approach.  They present instruction to the user for as
long as until they indicate they "Got it", and not a moment more.

One of the best ways to get users to "ignore" balloons, alerts,
messages, etc., is to repeatedly put them up in the users face.  After
the 3rd or 4th read, it has become a detracting element, because users
must actually exert effort just to ignore it.

For me, the very best UI's are the ones that are able to exercise
sufficient restraint.  Presenting too much information or help is just
as damaging to a UX as too little.  In some ways, more-so.

On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 10:28 AM, marcel.taeumel <[hidden email]> wrote:

One idea; what if the new "?" button toggles these balloons on/off so
that, when they're "on" they just stay there, centered in the lists..

Who cares if they obscure one line in the middle, just scroll around
it..(although it may not work for the annotation pane, because its
short).

Unorthodox, I know.

On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 4:09 AM, marcel.taeumel <[hidden email]> wrote:

Well, being orthodox is not always bad ;)

Common practice is to have a dark overlay explaining the parts of the UI, which is dismissed fully by clicking:

https://www.google.com/search?q=help+overlay&tbm=isch

I wouldn’t abuse help balloons for this at all.

- Bert -

This idea of re-using balloon texts comes from re-using the existing help content to make it more visible.

Best,
Marcel