Chapter 9. User Assistance: Communicating with Users Through Help, Status, and Alerts
“Accidents happen now and again.”
—Thomas the Tank Engine
The third and final layer of the Behavior tier, User Assistance, enables the application to communicate with the user about problems, errors, and conditions. In short, the purpose of the User Assistance layer is to mop up the mess when users find themselves confused or when the application doesn’t work as planned. Unfortunately, like an infant at an interview, the User Assistance layer is almost always about interruption.
The components of the User Assistance layer can be divided into two basic groups: help and alerts. In the context of a Web application, help provides a means for the user to ask ...
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