People don't like reading instructions. Nielsen's heuristic recommends that a system should have documentation or tutorials defining concrete steps for users to accomplish tasks they might need assistance with.

There are two types of help a system can offer to users:

• Proactive help: This is aimed at preventing situations where users get stuck and need assistance. Onboarding flows and tips provide such help.
• Reactive help: This is provided when users are in the middle of a crisis. Tutorials, videos, and documentation solve user problems by answering questions and providing more details for people who want to become experts.

Depending on the type of help, designers should ensure:

• Short onboarding and contextual tips: They should be concise, informative, and easy to dismiss if users don't need them. Tips that are relevant to the current task are the most helpful.
• Comprehensive documentation and tutorials: They should be accompanied by images and videos for people who perceive visual information better.
• Categorized help documentation: Documentation should be divided into relevant categories by the topic so users can browse them more effectively. If needed, provide a search bar so users can jump right to the relevant section.
• Contextual tips or documentation: These are easy to find and access. Users may ignore a helpful tip during onboarding and remember it when encountering a problem later.^[1]