HELP systems online are a great tool because while using a specific product, most users have questions that will arise. Help systems do work in most cases because they can display to a user how to effectively use a specific feature of a product. However, sometimes these help systems do not always work because they only answer a few specific questions. Users may have different questions about different things than are commonly asked and therefore, a help system may not provide an answer to that specific question. Though help systems do work in most cases, they are not always 100% efficient; and that is why they would not be a substitute for good design. The better the design is, the less questions that users will need to ask because features of the product will be obvious to the user and they will completely understand everything. Therefore, with a good design the users will need to ask less questions and a help system would not be as important. However, a help system should always be in place because even with an excellent design there could always be questions from users.
The persona for Project 5 should focus on the moderate user or fan. The reasoning for this is that most fans will be moderate followers. Obviously, there will be experts and also people who rarely follow the comic book or show; but most of the followers will be more moderate. These moderate followers will have a good amount of basic knowledge on the specific topic but will not know every single small detail. A moderate persona of this type is a good medium to use because it can give the best feel overall for all types of followers and therefore relate to the majority of fans.
I also agree that help systems are not always 100% efficient for users. Help systems can definitely be unclear and not informative enough for the users as well. It is important to keep in mind that the better design will cause the users to have less questions and and if they do, they will actually want to use the help system instead of ignoring it.
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