The Web Help Section? Nobody reads that!

That’s a shame, because we take great care to include accurate and relevant information. We research our clients to see who we are writing for, and how they use Cartegraph software. Cartegraph is a great product and we want our User Assistance to be equally great.

To figure out how to improve User Assistance, we interviewed Technical Support and observed them in action. And we found that the answers to many of the questions asked to Technical Support were already answered in User Assistance. And those that weren’t—we added.

Why were our clients picking up the phone instead of clicking on the Help button?

That’s what we asked you! At Cartegraph CONNECT 2009, we casually interviewed clients like you and gave them the opportunity to complete a User Assistance survey. The most important thing we learned was that people could not find the information they needed.

With that in mind, we came-up with two solutions for finding information faster:

• We placed User Assistance on the Cartegraph website and equipped it with a Google-powered search engine
• We divided content into four types: Concept, Task, Workflow, and Reference

Improved Search Results…

The Google search engine exponentially improves search results. Previously, the results were listed in alphabetical order, not by relevance. Any of the features you use searching with Google are available in the user assistance on the Cartegraph Web site, but focused just on Cartegraph information.

Another bonus? Just open your browser and enter your question in Google search. Google will then search and list links to Cartegraph User Assistance.

Intuitive Categorization…

Dividing information into topic types allows you to skim to find what you are looking for and refine your search process. You want the specific steps add a field to form? Previously, you may open a topic and with paragraphs of information, then steps of how to do something, followed by more paragraphs, and maybe another set of steps.

We restructured the content so you can read just the steps to adding a field to a form.  And if you choose, click again to read about just the field types and again to learn more about editing a form.

Here’s a quick description of the topic types:

CONCEPT — provides background information that helps you understand features. Concept topic titles begin with the word About. They help answer questions like:

• How does this benefit me?
• What data is needed for this?
• How does this interact with that?

TASK — includes the detailed steps needed to accomplish a specific task. Task topic titles begin with a verb—a word that describes action.

WORKFLOW — provides information for complex tasks like designing a form. They cover the different elements needed to achieve the goal. Links take you to the tasks that must be done to accomplish the goal. Workflow topic titles end with the word Overview.

REFERENCE — contains technical details related to tasks. They are used to provide supplemental details you may need. Reference information is provided for Filters, Properties, Controls, Error messages, etc.

While you read our user assistance, you will see these typographic cues:

• italic text is an optional step
• orange text is the expected results
• gray bars should be clicked to view more information
• bold text is something to choose in the interface—a form name, a button, or an icon
• blue underline is link that opens a new topic
• dotted underline displays a glossary definition

After skimming a topic you may decide, “This is not what I was looking for.” At the bottom you see a list of Related Topics that leads you to what you were originally looking for. Or show you something you didn’t know you were interested in Related Topics, topic types, and typographic cues can also be found in Cartegraph’s desktop software.

And because User Assistance is on the Web, we can correct or add content in real-time, instead of having to wait for the next software release.

Web Help? Everybody should read that! You will quickly find just what you are looking for, in focused and concise words.

Don't take our word for it.  Go out and explore User Assistance for yourself!  Visit the Web Help tab located in the Cartegraph Client Center.  And be sure to view our helpful tutorial video to learn how to take best advantage of our User Assistance resources.