[Usability] Recommended HIG providing additional info/help

[Age Bosma <agebosma home nl>]

Hi,

First of all, I feel that I need to make myself clear about telling you 
that I'm no linux user. Therefor I'm not able to "know" linux stuff you 
guys might assume to be known to any linux user. I am however a big 
opensource fan if that's making you feel a bit better about me again for 
not using linux ;-)
The reason I'm contacting you to discuss some matter is because I think 
it realy good that the HIG is being created. It not only usefull for 
just linux programmers but for programmers in general.

In the current HIG I wasn't able to find info about providing additional 
info and/or help and I wonder how you guys think about it. Maybe this is 
interesting enough to add to the next release. (Or I might have 
overlooked this section in the current specs, let me know if I did)

Because you want to leave the interface as clean as possible you don't 
want to include a large amount of text, though sometimes it's needed to 
provide some additional information about a specific section or setting.
Especially if it comes to an option/configuration section in a program 
just a small and simple setting title might not be sufficient and might 
cause confusing or make people start wondering what this option exactly 
does.
So far I have seen about 3 different solutions to this problem:
- Add (too much) text near a setting
- Providing a tooltip on input field mouseover
- Using a "location aware" help button

Obviously the original setting label should be as clear and as 
self-explanatory as possible to prevent the need for additional info in 
the first place. If not possible:

*Add (too much) text near a setting*
This is obviously not recommended. Yes, you could provide a small amount 
of extra info but this might make you UI less usable realy fast.

*Providing a tooltip on input field mouseover*
I quite like this option though there's one drawback, if too much text 
is displayed in the tooltip this causes problems again. Photoshop is a 
good example, this is the way I think it's OK [1]. Exact Audio Copy 
demonstrates how it shouldn't be done [2]. For the tooltip to be 
displayed you have to stay inside the input region, if you have to read 
a large amount of text you might not be able to hold the mouse as still 
as you should to keep the tooltip visible.

*Using a "location aware" help button*
In some programs you have "content/location aware" help buttons on the 
bottom of the dialog boxes. Kind of like the one in OpenOffice.org [3].
By hitting the help button in a specific section the help that is being 
opened actually takes you to the help section of the location where you 
are right away. This instead of taking you to the general help starting 
point.

I know that the option which best suits a program (setting) totally 
depends on the situation but what is your view on this? What would be 
recommended in which situation? What should or shouldn't be done and why?

Cheers,

Prodoc


[1]http://age.hobba.nl/temp/photoshop_tooltips.png
[2]http://age.hobba.nl/temp/eac_tooltips.png
[3]http://age.hobba.nl/temp/ooo_help.png