This topic describes the user experience guidelines for adding app help.
User experience guidelines
Help content should be a single page and can include text, links, and images. To provide the most current content, you should include a link to your support or home page or either embed an online page into your help page.
Appropriate use of Help
Before including Help content for your app, you should consider whether your app actually needs it. For example, if your app has proven to be easy to use, you might decide that Help content isn't necessary. If there are one or two UI elements in your app that are a bit tricky for users to understand, try integrating tips into the UI, creating a simple in-app demo, or redesigning those elements to avoid creating help that only addresses one or two simple fixes.
Dos
If you've decided to add a Help page for your app, here are some things to consider:
- Do label the entry point in the Settings pane Help to clearly identify it. Although the label is configurable, it's better to stay consistent with all other apps.
- Do open to your Help page from the Settings pane. The Help entry point shouldn't link directly to a website.
- Do keep the Help page short and easily scanned.
- If your Help content does not fit into a single topic, or if you want to include information that requires updating, then add links to your support website from the Help content. But keep in mind that linking to a web page takes your customer out of the app experience and should be used sparingly.
- Do write clearly and use a conversational voice, but avoid idioms and colloquialisms.
Don'ts
Here are some things to avoid when creating Help content:
- Don't use the Help entry point to link directly to a website .
- Because Help should feel like it is inside the app, don't launch a web browser when the user taps Help.
- Avoid technical terms and jargon whenever possible.
- Don't create Help content in the app that lists every known issue or documents every single feature of your app. Remember that you can link to your support web page, which might be a better location for information like that.
- Don't use Help to notify customers that a newer version of the app is available. This information is available in the first-level of the Settings user interface.
Build date: 10/26/2012
