Benefits
Reusable objects used in coding offer benefits to both developers and users. Developers have consistent functioning portions of code. They can piece these portions together to build complex software packages. This saves on development time and energy. It also gives the developers flexibility. Since the blocks will work in many different programs the end designs can be wildly different. Users see the consistency in the way they work with the final product.
Application to Online Help
By breaking down the functions and tasks of a software package, online help authors can create similar blocks or clusters of information. These clusters contain all of the information related to a task broken into several sectors. These clusters can then be used to create many types of help systems by providing a different organization and interface to the clusters.
Users benefit from the clusters because no matter how you organize the clusters, all of the information related to a particular task is at their fingertips.
Construction of an OOHS
Object Oriented Help Systems reduce the overall project into 3 distinct parts: content (the actual clusters), structure (how the clusters are grouped together and navigation), and layout (how the structure appears to the user).
Content
As discussed before, a cluster is a grouping of information about a particular task. Each cluster contains sectors into which information can be placed. The sector categories are: Introduction/Overview, How To, More Info, Reference, and Examples. They fit together to form a task cluster (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
Intro/Overview
The Intro/Overview sector contains a brief explanation of the cluster task. This sector does not include any explanations for why the task is being done, just an overview. The Intro/Overview will be the entry point for Tutorial style help systems.
More Info
The More Info sector contains information related to the "why" of the cluster task. This would include concept explanations, and how the cluster task fits in with the software in general. This is also where conceptual graphics go. It will be accessible from the Intro/Overview as well as the How To.
How To
The How To sector contains procedural instructions for the cluster task. It tells the user step by step how to complete the cluster task. The How To is the heart of task based help systems. The How To will be accessible from all other sectors. Additionally, it will be the entry point for Task Help Systems.
Examples
The Examples sector contains examples of the procedures outlined in the How To. While the How To deals with the procedure in generalities, the Examples can fill in the procedure with example information and provide a more complete picture of the cluster task. The Examples will only be accessible from the How To.
Reference
The Reference sector contains field level definitions, parameters and other information that may be necessary to complete the cluster task. The Reference sector will be accessible from Intro/Overview and How To. Additionally, it will be the entry point for context sensitive help system.
Structure
With the task clusters as building blocks, we can build several useful types of help systems. Three types stand out and each need a different approach to structure: Task Reference, Tutorial, and Context Sensitive.
Task Reference Help
The Task Reference Help System is most fundamental. As studies indicate, users typically go to the Help menu when they have a specific question they need answered. The Task Reference Help System provides those answers with minimum fuss. The method of navigation for a Task Reference Help System is a complete index. It allows users to search by keyword to bring up all the relevant clusters. When a user selects a cluster from the index, the How To cluster comes up with links to all of the other sectors.
Tutorial Help
The Tutorial Help System is more structured and ordered than the Task Reference. In addition to an index, Tutorials need to set up a browsing navigation in the form of a Table of Contents. The Table of Contents can provide the chronological order to use the clusters. When a user selects a link to a cluster, either from the Table of Contents or the index, they are brought to the Intro/Overview sector of the relevant cluster. From the Intro/Overview, links will lead to other sectors as shown in Figure 1.
Context Sensitive Help
The Context Sensitive Help System is more fragmented providing access to clusters throughout the software. By pressing a help button on a screen, pressing F1 or some other software specific method a user requests help on a particular field or screen. They are then brought to the Reference sector related to the task on that screen. Because several tasks could be related to a given screen, it may be necessary to bring up a list of related clusters to choose from. The Reference sector will connect to the rest of the sectors in its cluster as seen in Figure 1.
Layout
The Layout of any of the help systems will be determined largely by the tool used in its development and on a project by project basis. Becase all of these help systems rely primarily on a hypertext system of links, the only real requiremet for a display engine would be that it can adequately handle the links. The Layout would include: window sizes, font choices, color, linking method and anything else related to the appearance of the help system.
Figure 1