Add link to Help or Support to the Navigation Strip

[t_verano]

Title:
Add link to Help or Support to the Navigation Strip

Area:
links displayed on reading pages and journal pages

Summary:
Add a Help (or Support or "?") link to the Navigation Strip, so that every page displayed (including reading pages, etc) has direct access to Help, instead of only the admin-type pages.

Description:
It would be helpful (very) if I didn't have to leave my reading page or my journal page and go to one of the admin-type pages in order to get to a link for Help. It would save me time (slow connection, and every page load counts for me), and also would feel logical, maybe, to be able to directly access Help from anywhere? (I keep forgetting that I can't, and spend time wistfully searching the Navigation Strip for the Help link before I remember that I have to go elsewhere before I can get to Help.) On my navigation strip it looks like there's plenty of room (or it could just be a small "?" symbol -- anything to allow direct access would be great).

Poll #4514 Add link to Help or Support to the Navigation Strip

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
38 (63.3%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
2 (3.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
6 (10.0%)

(I have no opinion)
14 (23.3%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[ratcreature]

Where would it fit in the Navigation Strip? For me it is already so crowded that the Go button does not fit on my screen and I have horizontal scrolling.

ETA: Also, you can already search the FAQ directly from the navigation strip, so that brings you to the help pages, too.

[t_verano]

I guess there are differences in people's navigation strips? There's a lot of room on mine, especially if it would be just a tiny question-mark symbol.

And now I feel like something of an idiot -- I tend to look for Help or ? to click on, and I confess that it never occurred to me (this is embarrassing) to click on the drop-down box beside Search to see if I could search FAQs from there.

Hmm. Sort of six of one, half a dozen of the other. It really helps me to be able to open links to Help / FAQs etc. in new browser tabs, since with my slow connection, clicking a Go button and having to in effect close out my reading page in order to display whatever I've searched for in the FAQs, and then reload the reading page when I'm done with the FAQs, can take a lot longer than being able to do a 'open in a new tab' click on an actual link. Plus -- and this is totally a personal quirk -- it's easier for me to keep track of both new pages and previous pages when I can have them in separate tabs; back-button, return-to navigation is oddly harder for me to follow. (I feel sort of disoriented when I have to physically leave a page I'm not done with, instead of being allowed to let it remain in its own handy tab waiting for me while I do other stuff in a new tab.)

I'm glad to know about the FAQs via the search box thing, though; thanks!

[ratcreature]

Well, I don't have a large screen, but use slightly larger than average fonts (though not huge). There is some blank space in my navbar, but none of these areas seem all that sensible for the help button. There is a bit of space next to the log out button, and a bit of space next to "You're viewing your Reading Page.", but that's it.

[t_verano]

I don't have a large screen either, actually. "A lot of room" is relative, I guess. :-)

I could see adding a narrow 'section' (set off by the little section dividers) just to the left (or right, for that matter) of the search box section as one possibility. It wouldn't have to be more than 25 pixels wide or so, I'd think, just enough room to have a "?" displayed, and since it would be its own little section, hopefully it would visually stand alone as a Help symbol and make both visual and logical sense. That might be one possible route if a help link turns out to be something enough people would find useful.

[ratcreature]

I guess I only ever use the help when I'm fiddling with my journal (changing settings or something), not when I read entries. And even then I don't need it often. The only thing I always forget which would help in my reading is the URL additions you use to display your reading page by date or privacy level, and actually I never find that in the DW FAQ anyway and have to look in the LJ FAQ (last time that happened I complained to support that I couldn't find this anywhere, so maybe the FAQ will be updated). So I don't see much need.

And like I said, the whole "Go" button is already outside my screen area with horizontal scrolling, so 25px more width would make that worse, and I'd have the drop down arrow of the search field outside of my area, which would really suck. I guess if it was to the right of the Go button I just wouldn't see it, but I assume then so wouldn't a lot of other people, which is not great for a help button.

[denise]

(last time that happened I complained to support that I couldn't find this anywhere, so maybe the FAQ will be updated)

It's on my list!

[jumpuphigh]

I like this idea a lot. I envision it as a link on the far right of the nav bar.

[zvi]

The navigation strip is already overcrowded for users using a large font or a smaller browser resolution. Especially since this function is, essentially, already present (search the FAQ) I really don't like it.

I feel like any additonal links on the navigation strip should be limited to links which affect the page on which one is viewing, or are pages a user is likely to visit for all or nearly all visits to Dreamwidth the site. Unless we're doing something very wrong (or you're working support) no one should need to visit help every time they're on the site.

[t_verano]

I love form, as well as function, and love it best when neither has to sacrifice to the other. That some users' nav strips are too overcrowded as is, and that it *is* possible to search the FA@s from the search box (which was not an intuitive feature for me, and I only realized when it when it was mentioned in a comment above), are reasons I can easily see for not believing a link is needed/valid.

But looking at the nav strip again, I can see at least one (theoretical) way of adding in a narrow but accessible (and possibly even aesthetic) "?" section without widening the bar contents any and without losing existing links -- of course, it may seem that way to me because I'm not using larger fonts, etc. But it might be possible to do in a way that wouldn't make things uglier or less convenient for other DW users. Or -- if there would turn out to be enough people who would find a help link valuable, it could be an optional link that could be displayed or not at the far side of the nav strip, based on user settings. I know that's total overkill and a lot more work, but it's always interesting to think of various possibilities (even if they're pie-in-the-sky ones, heh).

For me, the second part of your comment is a little harder to see, though. Help is something that a person might need to access from any page on a web site, not just one certain set of pages. "No one should need to visit help every time they're on the site" -- very true for a well-designed site, but shouldn't it still be intuitively easy to *find* help wherever a person might be, especially for people who rarely visit the more admin-type pages? Isn't the point of help to *be* help, for anyone, from anywhere?

And for me, help "is" one of the links which affects the page I'm viewing, reading page or journal page as well as admin-type pages. I see things when I'm reading that I want to find out more about from a help standpoint; help is valuable to me from every page, not just when I'm doing behind-the-scenes stuff.

[faithofone]

I understand that some people's nav bars are over crowded given small screen size and/or large fonts. But, I think that rejecting this solution based upon a current design flaw in the nav bar is a bad idea.

Why not fix the nav bar so that it doesn't produce a side scroll if you've got large fonts/small screen?

Can't we do some sort of float thing in CSS so that if your font is big enough to make the nav bar produce a side scroll, then have one of the sections of the nav bar pop down below it and extend it vertically instead of stretching the page really wide?

Alternately, I know that it'd be a pain in the butt to do it, but maybe offer the ability to customize it like you can the new update page. Make it a drag and drop, with the ability to add user selected content if they want to.

[archangelbeth]

maybe offer the ability to customize it like you can the new update page

I drool at this comment.

[faithofone]

I'm really liking the idea myself, but I know that it's a ton of work to create something like that.

[vanessagalore]

A tiny question mark to save space, and when you hover, you get the message "Help" or "Go to support area". Also, tiny so experienced users won't really even see it after a while.