[Usability]<What's this?> button

[axel c <axel banzais org>]

hi there,

i've been thinking for some time about the idea of a What's this? button
is some gnome dialogs. I got the idea because i used a windows box a
couple of days ago and found it a great idea (though poorly exploited in
the windows case, since the information given is often useless and
confusing). Little bits of 'educational' information can be included in
dialogs, widgets, etc if the user needs them.

For example, let's say a user needs to set up a file association in
nautlilus, then the dialog pops up, there could be a button saying 'tell
me more about this' which pops a Tooltip giving a little explanation of
what a MIME type is, and why it needs to be associated with an
application to be handled. I think this dynamic, minimalistic,
context-depending 'teaching' would be more appealing to the user than
browsing through heavy documentation to find something (the user learns
as he needs it), this reminds me of the educational theories of Rousseau
et al, 'teaching through pleasure' might be the english translation but
im not sure though.

Of course, i guess these 'bits' could be toggled off by more advanced
users.

what do you think about this?


Axel C.