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Thread: alternatives to screenshots for Help pages?
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Don Hinshaw
Date: Mon, May 16 2005 1:56PM
Subject: alternatives to screenshots for Help pages?
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Hi there,
I am coding Help (how to use this site) pages and have been asked to incorporate screenshots to illustrate the points being made in the text.
I am struggling with the best way to present them, or rather augment them so that the pages are actually *Helpful*.
I am thinking it might just be a matter of ensuring that the copy can stand on its own if a user cannot see the screenshots.
Any thoughts on this, or good examples?
I notice that the WebAIM Dreamweaver pages use screenshots with ALT text and nothing more.
Thanks,
Don
--
Don Hinshaw
Hinshaw Design Group
http://www.hinshawdesign.com
From: KNOCK Alistair
Date: Tue, May 17 2005 1:32AM
Subject: RE: alternatives to screenshots for Help pages?
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[In my opinion....]
Screenshots can be a help and a hindrance to all users. I'm sure some
people benefit from the 70-80 page colour A4 documents that some of our
departments publish, but considering that the entirety of the text can
usually be summed up in two or three pages of bulleted action lists, the
decimation of trees seems unjust. The copy should always be able to
stand alone, so that the user can use it in conjunction with the system
itself.
Out of interest, how complex is the site, if it's judged to require
screenshots to guide the user? Also consider the resource implications
of having to update screenshots as well as guidance notes.
Cheers,
Alistair
>
From: Robinson, Norman B - Washington, DC
Date: Tue, May 17 2005 10:47AM
Subject: RE: alternatives to screenshots for Help pages?
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I don't know if it is applicable, but where my organization uses web
applications, I've suggested they simply use the same code as the
application itself. Don't do a screen snapshot - use a copy of the web
content. My purpose is to address several problems that having a fixed
sized bitmap image causes with different screen sizes, ignoring user's
color preferences, and the fact the actual CSS+XHTML is usually (in our
applications) more accessible than the screen snapshot.
It requires an approach to how you present the elements, such as pulling
the code for just the feature or form entry you want to target. For
instance, the designer thinks showing only the search bar illustrates
what they want the user to focus on and eliminated the rest of the
content. But the designer took the code from the actual page and
controls the learning plan for that example. I've suggested the designer
could also take all form elements and redirect them to 'this is for
demonstration only' along with a return for a demo account user.
On some applications it may be easier to consider a demonstration
account. This enables full use and experimentation of the application.
If you are using dynamic web sites you can also embed the instructions
at the beginning of the page for the benefit of all users.
Hope that wasn't too far from your actual question,
Norman
From: cdwise
Date: Tue, May 17 2005 12:11PM
Subject: Re: alternatives to screenshots for Help pages?
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Except that many people with dyslexia and other impairments understand
images and diagrams much better than bulleted text. I know someone who can
take an exploded diagram and assemble a machine or piece of furniture in
less time than I can even find a legend on the page.
That same person would take over 2 hours just to read your 3 page bulleted
list.
By providing both methods it accommodates a variety of learning methods.
Cheryl D. Wise
http://wiserways.com
http://starttoweb.com - online training for web design & development
On 5/17/05 2:32 AM, "KNOCK Alistair" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> [In my opinion....]
>
> Screenshots can be a help and a hindrance to all users. I'm sure some
> people benefit from the 70-80 page colour A4 documents that some of our
> departments publish, but considering that the entirety of the text can
> usually be summed up in two or three pages of bulleted action lists, the
> decimation of trees seems unjust. The copy should always be able to
> stand alone, so that the user can use it in conjunction with the system
> itself.
>
> Out of interest, how complex is the site, if it's judged to require
> screenshots to guide the user? Also consider the resource implications
> of having to update screenshots as well as guidance notes.
>