342740 - Query page help is not discoverable, and not detailed enough

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Bugzilla :: Query/Bug List, defect)

Description

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Discussions on the developers@ mailing list have suggested that the help on the query page is not discoverable, and perhaps in some cases not detailed enough.

The particular issue mentioned was relative dates.

Perhaps it's time to admit that, given that no other web applications have picked up on our novel "mouseover help", it might not be what users expect. We should have a look at what other web apps do and see if we can make it more discoverable.

One suggestion was to have a small [?] icon next to each label which, when clicked or moused over, popped up a <div> with the help in - much like mouseover does now. This help system should be built in from initial page load, rather than having to be activated.

We'd need to consider how this would interact with JavaScript. I'm pretty sure we can do this solely using CSS.

We should also consider linking out to the Bugzilla Guide for examples of the different sorts of search.

Gerv

Comment 1

[timeless]

I don't think we should link to our Bugzilla Guide, it might be good, but I've never turned to it.

Sorry, we should write this stuff from scratch. Don't look at anything else, think of it *entirely* from the perspective of an end user. Pretend you've never used Bugzilla before.

If that's too hard, pay someone from a coffee shop to sit down at a Bugzilla and give them tasks.

Be careful not to bias them too much. If possible, encourage them to think aloud as they work. If the person you find doesn't think aloud enough for you to follow their thoughts, collect what you can buy them their coffee and wait for another person.

Comment 2

[Teemu Mannermaa (:wicked)]

FWIW, I did consider using ?-icons when I was rewriting help system in bug 182082. That would be much better UI but I didn't think of a way to add these icons dynamically back then. Not sure if we should mix these two bugs or if we can keep these two separate..

Comment 3

[Kevin Benton]

Seems to me that links back into documentation should be fairly easy to do if we handle writing the documentation properly and use anchors effectively.  Obviously, we'd never want to link to line numbers, but linking to topical (named, not numbered) anchors would work well.  If it were to link into HTML or a PDF, the user would be presented with the information they need when they want it.  Our composition method in the guide would need to allow for users jumping into a field description in the middle of the documentation, however.

Comment 4

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

Should be more discoverable now that it is "?" icons and standard tooltips on 4.0.