What are we doing wrong?

[Milo Casagrande]

2010/1/19 Daniel Bo <daengbo at gmail.com>:
> Unless a system operates exactly the way a user expects it to, users
> will need to read the help files. We have determined through years of
> forum and IRC comments that yes, people need help -- that Ubuntu
> doesn't operate the way they expect it to. Few use the help, though,
> because they don't really expect it to have answers or even understand
> that it exists.

I think on this front there could be more cooperation, or some sort
of, between the teams. I'm saying this because I don't know if there
is already cooperation in place, I do not follow the forums or the IRC
channels, but if we have some sort of common channel, some people or
whatever/whoever that can report back to the doc team what the users
need, what they find wrong or what are the problems they are trying to
solve, that would help the doc people, also on content planning.

If there is already that in place, well... I need to update myself! ;-)

> A first-run help system will:
> 1) Let new users know that help exists off-line;
> 2) Introduce common problems on the very first page in order to let
> the new user know that answers to these problems exist;
> 3) Identify that there really IS a help system for other, less common
> problems; and
> 4) Not appear on the second and later logins, thus not nagging anyone.
> You can't nag if you only say it once in a nice way.
>
> Lots of programs have a "tip on start-up" that's configurable to
> display or not. The existence of these tips doesn't make the programs
> unintuitive or naggy.

Something like this has been discussed I think at least at two UDS,
but has never been implemented.
It is a lot like the old Windows welcome screen, annoying to a lot of
people, and probably not very useful too: are we sure people are going
to read it if they (supposedly) don't even read the documentation they
have?

Another problem, or something that needs to be considered, is that a
lot of users update their system from version to version: are they
going to see that welcoming screen? Do they need it? What about power
users?

There was an idea (I think at Jaunty UDS) to use the "new"
notification system to do something similar, but (probably) less
obtrusive: when the user first login after the installation, have a
small pop-up bubble under the help icon with a small description that
explains what that icon is for and what they get by clicking on it.

Ciao.

-- 
Milo Casagrande <milo at casagrande.name>