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Put the assistance where people need it Put embarrassing information where they need it Case study: Shop.Microsoft.com Challenge: Creating guidelines for customer assistance objects |
Embedding customer assistance--how to write labels, tips, & cluesIf you're in the middle of ordering a new pair of fuzzy bedroom slippers, and you wonder how to fill out a slot in the form, or ask yourself what the choices mean, you may have to leave the order, go to the top of a FAQ menu, make a choice, read the material, realize it is not what you want, go back to the menu, choose another item, and, if it is relevant, memorize it, and then return, back, back, back to the form, to apply what you learned, if you can still remember it. If you have a follow-up question, well, you just have to go through the same routine again. In testing, we see people go through these loops two, three, four, even five times, just trying to understand one form. Little wonder that sites report half to three quarters of their shopping carts are abandoned before checkout is complete. GO TO is bad practice in programming, and GO TO is terrible for a visitor who just wants a simple answer to a question.
See: Ames (2000), Boggan, Farkas and Welinske (1996), Duffy, Palmer, and Mehlenbacher (1992), Horton (1990), Price (2000), Price and Korman (1993). |
Resource: Creating customer assistance that actually helps, from Hot Text: Web Writing that Works (2002, PDF, 993K, or about 18 minutes at 56K)
Design the interface as if the product
will have no documentation. |
Is that a bug on my head? How can I get it off?
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