Is “tip-of-the-day” good? [closed]

Answer 1

Personally, I prefer software that’s simple enough to not need “Tip of the Day”.

Answer 2

Actually, I've never heard of Maxthon. But I actually like those as long as there is a checkbox to make them stop. I like the tips to actually tell me something interesting instead of something very obvious in the UI. But this is really preference. I don't think it is bad design to use them.

Answer 3

Norman Ramsey made some great points about how tips could be improved. My problem with tips of the day (and I'm speaking as someone who's implemented them in my own apps) is that they are not timely and a bit too intrusive. The typical tip of the day comes up when you start the program, and requires a button click to make it go away. When I actually see a useful tip, my train of thought is usually "I'll have to remember that when I do option ". Of course, it's forgotten by the time I get around to using . And clicking OK during program startup gets old fast, I'll usually disable the tips after the first dozen or so.

My suggestion would be to go the next step and make the tip of the day much more context sensitive. For example, if the program detects that the user is constantly going to Edit | Copy and then Edit | Paste, a good tip would be "Not for nothing, but CTRL+C followed by CTRL+V accomplishes the same thing" and tell them right when they are clicking away at the menu like a lost monkey, not during program startup. Oh, and don't interrupt their work by forcing them to click OK.

What I just suggested - is that what that damn paperclip dude used to do?

Answer 4

I think this goes along with the issues against modals -- it's something in a user's way, despite how helpful it may be. Which is why the "Do not show at startup" is needed.

Though I've never used Maxthon before, the way it showed tips sounds like a really good idea. It's unobtrusive and entirely optional as to if users even have to pay them any attention.

IMO, it's not good idea to have a feature that has to ask the user if it should "keep quiet." ;)

And, while some tips can seem blatantly obvious, even these tips can still be useful to users that aren't quite as familiar. Those that already know it can just continue on with their day.

Answer 5

A tip is a good idea, users can discover things they didn't know they didn't know. But rather than using a pop up getting in the way of working, I like how World of Warcraft does it. They put the tip on the loading screen, when you have nothing better to do then stare at the progress bar anyway.

Answer 6

It must be easy to banish the tips---but when learning a new GUI, I use them often. If it's a tip at startup I usually turn it off after at most a dozen runs, but if tips are well designed this gives me a sense of the application space.

Ways tips could be improved:

• Don't tip a user about a feature that user has used recently.

• Making tips sensitive to context can be helpful (the new Vista bars are an example --- pause to get the vapors; I have just said something nice about Vista).

• Tips that are unobtrusive or appear during otherwise wasted time are good.

• Tip during loading screen is good, but it must be findable after loading is over. Some popular game, maybe it was Baldur's Gate, would give you a tip during loading, and then afterward you could go back and review the tips in your journal. So if you had a vague memory of a useful tip a few screens back, you could find it quickly, in the same place you were accustomed to look for other recent information. A 'recently tipped' item on the help menu perhaps?