063Usability heuristic
Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, and list concrete steps to be carried out.
Why it matters
When in-product discovery fails, documentation is the safety net. It must be findable, scannable, and task-oriented—not an encyclopedia dump.
What to inspect
- Is help reachable from the screen where questions arise?
- Are articles titled by user tasks rather than internal feature names?
- Do help panels stay contextual instead of dumping the whole manual?
- Are search and cross-links obvious for longer products?
Common anti-patterns
- PDF-only manuals with no in-app entry point.
- Help that describes UI that no longer exists.
- FAQ walls with no search and no anchor links.
Critique prompts
- What question would a user Google about this screen—and does your help answer it in one page?
- Where is the shortest path from confusion to a worked example?