Ubuntu Help Centre To Get Major Overhaul For Lucid?

By , Published January 20, 2010

The Ubuntu “Help and Support” system may be getting a overhaul in time for Lucid.

Developers feel the majority of users are either simply unaware that the help system exists or find it overly complicated to navigate and draw information from.

Fresh Install
A default install of Ubuntu has the ‘help centre’ icon sat on the top GNOME panel along with a Firefox icon, so you’d think users would be aware of it from the get-go… Hands up if one of your first moves in a fresh Ubuntu install is removing these icons? No-one runs the help centre before removing the icon and that’s part of the problem.
From then on in people seem to forget that the “Help And Support” application exists, preferring to Google answers to any problems or head straight to the Ubuntu Forums.
Those that do try it are soon left frustrated by the slow load-up times and inconsistent navigation.

The Current Help & Support Centre; sidebar swaps sides, too many clicks needed
Mallards
Several solutions are currently being proposed, not least of which is transforming the way the Help & Support centre is presented; switching from the current system to a more elegant and powerful “mark up” language called ‘Mallard‘.

‘Mallard’ help users better navigate content via ‘topcis’ (and also via breadcrumbs – in keeping with Nautilus and the Software centre and via ‘topic’ based )

Other people propose simply presenting the information differently, or integrating webkit into Yelp.

Help document written in Mallard

Regardless of what powers the help system has, as a an Ubuntu user I simply want to be able to find the content within the centre – which is actually incredibly well written and informative.

Help Centre On First Run; Easier Access
Another proposal is having the help centre run on first login of a fresh install as with Windows and OpenSuse. Whilst users may quickly close the “first run” help centre, the exposure to it will help ingrain the fact that a help system is available offline.
Of course, help centres are no use without easy access and one proposal is to move the current menu entry to a more accessible location – above the Software Centre.


Lucid +1

As the discussions surrounding the documentation are still on-going and due to the fact that Lucid is fast approaching, these changes may have to sit out and be included in Lucid +1.
All I can say is it can’t come soon enough…
Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Lucid Alpha 1 A Week Away – What To Expect
  2. 100 Papercuts Returns For Lucid
  3. Lucid Lynx: What We Know So Far
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  • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

    All I can say is it can’t come soon enough… [2]

  • Navneeth

    Bug report: 9.10 is not Jaunty Jackalope.

    But seriously, an overhauled Help Centre is most welcome.

  • Mohan

    I think this is a very good idea, as I have experienced a use not knowing about the Help Centre first hand (my father). He didn’t know about it at all until I showed it to him.

  • Anonymous

    never used the help center i always google things in the form of ___________? ubuntu and was always able to find a thread on what i was looking for. if ubuntu really wants to help new users they need to add videos showing how to do things. i know videos are big and it would be hard to fit them in a 700mb package so maybe they can use animated gifs or have a larger version (1gb) and add it all in.

    • Navneeth

      That means they can get GIMP back in, too! :D

  • http://twitter.com/terminaldude John Rowe

    What theme/skin are you using there? It looks amazing – super clean!

  • Carl

    Lucid is shaping up to be a nice release! I for one am looking forward to it.

  • http://www.linuxmint.com/ Jimbo

    Its worth noting that at the moment the community is making a big push to write an instruction manual for Ubuntu (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual) something which would be more or less obsolete if Help Centre did it was supposed to.

    What I find most crazy though is its taken 11 releases of Ubuntu before anyone in the community organised the development of a manual. But of course, thats not strictly true, there are loads of online guides and wikis about Ubuntu. What makes this one any different? The fact it is a PDF i think. Is that really a big deal? Would people prefer that to a wiki/website style interface with links in the paragraphs to take you to other relevant sections?

    • Navneeth

      Re: PDF v Web Help:

      Well, a PDF would be great for someone without an Internet connection or one which is very slow. Also, it’s does not involve a great deal of effort to link pages within a PDF. (Of course, effectively linking them might.)

      • http://www.linuxmint.com/ Jimbo

        The projects aim is to eventually be included on the disk, in which case the argument about being available offline becomes less of an issue, as you can simply boot up Ubuntu to get to the info.

        I dunno if Canonical will go for it though, as it will basically kill most peoples desire to ever buy the official Ubuntu book. Are they gunna actively support the community in killing one of its revenue streams?

  • Anonymous

    My thinking on the matter is that when people search for info on Chrome OS after it’s released, they’re going to inevitably find the word ‘Linux’ coming up quite a bit. It may not cause mass movement towards Linux on the desktop, but it might at least enable more people in the mainstream to become aware of what Linux is and what it might offer them.villas bali

  • Anonymous

    Yeah it would be great to have a full featured Help. I think its going to be hard to kick the habit/temptation of googling though as a lot of the time its more up-to-date

  • Anonymous

    Is there any mention of integrating with online resources? As everyone else has said: Google has the best answers. It would be nifty if the help center could provide useful canned help if the user is offline, or pull online resources when the user has a live Internet connection.

    It would be interesting to have usage stats for the help center. The few times I’ve used it for an app, I’ve found the content to be so thin that I just hit the goog anyway.