I am a user assistance (UA) professional with some 17 years of experience. Over the years, I've worked on CRM, Billing, and SCM products, written end-user documentation, and produced training and marketing materials. I took my first steps in the world of help for mobile apps when I joined SAP Labs Israel in 2001, working with WAP 2.0 technologies and such handheld devices as the HP iPAQ. I currently lead the company’s Mobile UA Guidelines & Best Practices Project, where we use design thinking techniques and engage with SAP partners and customers to co-innovate the way we design mobile user assistance.
Enterprise users increasingly use smartphones and tablets to access products and services. User assistance (AKA “Help”) should be consistent with the overall on-device user experience and facilitate task execution without getting in the way. Also, different complexities of apps call for different degrees of user assistance, but...how do you determine what is sufficient and what is overkill?
This coming Monday, October 7th, I'll be presenting at Inside Track 2013 Israel on how to design the right mobile UA and reduce your app's total cost of understanding (TCU) in a world where "no one reads the manuals" is the prevailing motto.
To learn more about Mobile UA, see:
Feel free to post questions in the comments section, or connect with me via Twitter and LinkedIn.
