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Subject:Re: Mobile - tooltips and other embedded help From:kafkascampi <kafkascampi -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Charlotte Branth Claussen <charlotteclaussen -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Thu, 3 Dec 2015 15:10:45 -0800
Joe Welinske, who runs the WritersUA conferences, focuses on Mobile
User Assistance. He has a book on it (though I don't have it myself): http://www.welinske.com/duama/.
I know Flare can output mobile help fairly painlessly. You probably
knew that already. I believe their webhelp is responsive, meaning it
will detect the window size and present an appropriately sized version
of the help.
I would think that a context-sensitive help control within the app
would work well enough on a mobile interface. Clicking things is not
always easy on a phone, but that's par for the course. At least with
my fat fingers.
Chris
On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 3:00 AM, Charlotte Branth Claussen
<charlotteclaussen -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> We are upgrading our help from the Word/PDF setup and looking into
> possibilities. We're not ready for a full on XML system, but we use MadCap
> Flare and can thus be fairly flexible. We have good relations with
> developers and the UX team which means that we have the opportunity to
> create good embedded help that integrates will with an online help (if we
> get in there early enough!).
>
> Our application is used on mobiles, tablets and desktops. It is intended
> that users will change devices on the fly while using our application, so
> the aim is to make the user experience as similar as possible across
> devices. That does of course mean that we need to optimize for mobile,
> while not making the desktop experience empty.
>
> What are the challenges?
> How do you avoid the "mobile first" approach affecting the desktop versions
> negatively?
> How do you solve the issues with touch interfaces and small screens? (when
> you can't do right-click, hover, etc. - and you don't have a lot screen
> estate for buttons or extra text)
>
> I have done some searching and seem to mostly find examples of what is *not*
> working.
>
> Do you know good examples of embedded help for mobile devices?
>
> Thanks,
> Charlotte
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