Our post about how Microsoft is changing its writing style (Microsoft moves away from “robot speak” in its user documentation) generated a lot of interest, so I thought it might be useful to post some examples of it that we’ve spotted. These examples are from Office 365 Premium Edition.
Tag: help
Changing times in technical communication 3 – The long form Help topic
One of the most recent developments in web page design has been the introduction of “long form” web pages. Will we also see the long form approach used in Help, or perhaps start to influence the way some Help pages are designed?
Does looking at online Help make users forget?
Over the weekend, Dr Chris Atherton suggested I look at “the doorway effect”. You may well have experienced walking through a doorway and then finding you’d forgotten why you’d stood up in the first place. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have discovered your brain is not to blame for your confusion about what you’re doing in… Read more »
Introducing the Head Up Display. Say hello to the future of the menu
The Ubuntu operating system is to replace its application menus with a “head-up display” (HUD) box. According to Mark Shuttleworth, Lead design and product strategy person at the company behind Ubuntu: We can search through everything we know about the menu, including descriptive help text, so pretty soon you will be able to find a… Read more »
Help is broken?
Are we at the point when we need to acknowledge that classic online Help files are not working as well as they should – that is, as the primary source of information to assist users when they get stuck? This is not a Don Draper “why I’m quitting tobacco” moment, and this is not a… Read more »