Online Help system for Microsoft Office for Mac
Information and visual design of Help content, including help viewer application, help topics, tuturials and video podcasts
Microsoft Word Help home page
For Microsoft Office the content team wanted to provide all types of content to the users. Mock ups were made of a rich home page that included suggested topics, help content, articles, support, updates and tutorials.
The rich home page was tested in a user study with 12 participants. The result of the study was that users didn't want all the content we were trying to offer them. The resounding feedback was "don't advertise to me" and "just provide me with a search blank".
To meet the needs of the team, novice users and advanced users we created a simplified version of the home page with basic search and a few suggested topics and tutorials. The content of the page could be dynamically updated at any future time.
Microsoft Office Help topic information design
For consistency in authoring and the user experience all help content was authored to match 5 different topic types.
The third image with What's new in Microsoft Word X is the previous version of the Help viewer for reference.
A See also section that was manually authored and included in the XML displays links to relevant related topics in the help system.
A feedback mechanism was included in every help topic. Users are solicited "Was this information helpful?" and the users are then provided and text box to provide feedback. The collected results are stored in a database that the content authors use to determine errors, updates or omitted content.
Microsoft Office video podcasts
Video podcasts were not shipped as an installed item in the help system. The video launch pages are included in the help system as a method of describing the content and linking to the online video.
The existing See also sectiona and feedback mechanism included in all help topics is also part of the video launch page.