We see many terms and types of help systems used in the context of site design: "Help," "Support," "FAQ," "Docs," "Knowledge Base," etc. All of these web pages are intended to provide assistance to users.

Help systems should be conveniently accessible in locations where users can possibly need answers to their questions, e.g., when they get started using a website, and when they could benefit from useful information.

They’re critical because they are one of the last places a website visitor will look before deciding to give up and search for another website that will fulfill their requirements. Therefore, help systems can be crucial in retaining your site visitors.

While help systems are important and oftentimes indispensable, many website designs overlook the usefulness and importance of them. The reason for this is usually a lack of awareness by the website owner of the need for help content or of the benefit of integrating it into the content of the website.

For example, in the case of an online shop, you could put purchasing instructions on the home page or somewhere where users could easily find them, instead of creating a separate help section. This would also increase findability.

Some Examples of Help Systems

To help with the discussions that will follow, let’s look at just a few examples of help systems.