Designing Effective Online Help

Linking

The beauty of online help is that you can link information in one topic to information in other topics. Examples of some common links include table of contents entries, index entries, site maps, see also, definition popups (such as the green links on my web site), and related information links (such as those found at the bottom of each article on my web site).

Links make it easy for users to find answers to their questions. It also allows users to find information related to the topic they are reading about. This means that users can access that information with greater speed and learn the product faster. It will make the user feel like they can learn the product! In the end, that's what you want!

When you're creating links, you should make it clear what sort of information the link will take the user to. If users have to click on several different links to find what they want, you're not using your links effectively. For example, "The company's new product line," is actually pretty vague. The link could be a link for the company, or it could be a link for the company's product line. "Click here to view a list of new products," or "The company's new products," are both much better because users can figure out what information the link jumps to and decide if they want to go there. From what I understand about accessibility issues, the latter is the best solution because the various kinds of readers out there render the link better.

While links are a great tool, too many links on a page can be confusing. You should limit your links to only pertinent information. For instance, a topic that details information about a database form may have links to how-tos that use the form and definition popups that explain any key terms discussed within the topic. The form can also appear in the table of contents and the index.