What apps have the best help or tutorials? I am working on an iPad app and one of the frustrations that I had when trying to use other people's stuff is that it is so confusing. I was wondering if you could tell me what apps have the best in-app help or whatever so I can make my app easier to use. Do you like a written manual, YouTube tutorials, the little overlay thing, "tip of the day" or something else?

Thanks!

i would like something that is easily found (like a help tab that I don't have to google to find out where it is), and that can be searched (so I don't have to read the whole thing when I just want to know how to do one thing). can't really think of any examples since most of the help/manuals that come with apps are terrible; although I guess I can't complain when I'm spending $5 on an app that does something pretty cool. there is a graphics app called Sketchbook Pro that has a pretty good info/help section. when you press the "i" at the top of the main screen, it tales you to another section that has maybe 5 tabs that are related to the idea of "help."

I think youtube videos are a great idea as well. a quick and dirty video of someone showing me how to do 1 thing is always appreciated. I can find out what I need and not spend an evening wading through a bunch of other stuff. what's your app going to do? and good luck with it, whatever it is.

IMO, Nanostudio has an excellent help. Perhaps not exactly by functional aspects (for example, there's no search, but you can always also download it as a PDF and search in there), but the way it's written is just kickass.

The help system of Garageband is quite great as well, plus it's searchable. It's just a tiny bit too hidden (read: you need to click through menus).

Musicstudio is not doing too bad, either, but the way it's written is a lot less comprehensive than what you get with Nanostudio.

iMaschine has quite a decent help system, too.

Out of these, the help of Nanostudio is written the best and Garageband probably has the best system (as it's searchable).

- Sascha

I am working on a drum machine where you can set each step to on, off or a probability that it will trigger the note: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/stochastik-drum-machine-by-x itive-inc it isn't out yet (hopefully in the next week!)

michael2: thanks for the idea about quick videos to do one thing. I think I will make a video for each feature, that seems to be a good way to a) make it so i dont have to spend all day on the perfect video and b) help you cut to the chase. The searchability thing is an interesting point -- Sascha's notion of a pdf would make the written help be searchable.

Sascha: thanks for the insight about nanostudio, I will give their help another look. It took me a while to find Garageband's detailed help -- i just saw their overlay thing and didnt realize that they had a book hidden in there. Very cool.

I think all iOS audio app sellers should offer a free eBook using the new Author tool for their help manuals as an additional feature. This way, we can have our app open on one device while using a dormant device for the manual.

interesting. sounds like a good idea.

Youtube /vimeo videos is the way to go. Here is an idea how this could work:

Swipe from right to left.
The program shows the help screen.
The help screen is divided in 4 parts:
* Top left: Video categories
* Top right: Videos from selected category
* Bottom left: Video player
* Bottom right: Video description.
Each divider is movable to resize the other parts.
The video player must have a full screen function.

I can't agree with that. I'm often using my iPhone in areas where I can't connect to the web for a variety of reasons.
So videos are only good in addition to a properly integrated manual. Also, with videos you usually get a whole bunch of information at once. Which makes them suitable for tutorials and the likes - but it's overkill in case I only want to look up one single function.

- Sascha

This discussion reminds me that everyone thinks "best" is something a little different. So, I've decided to include the Overlay Help, Videos (YouTube) and a text-based manual.

JavaJ: I've decided to include a PDF manual. If you have iBooks installed, it will open in iBooks, and you can use it without internet. Otherwise, it will open in Safari (and require web access.) Apple's eBook maker can't export to pdf for the web (at least, I dont think it can...) so I just went ahead and made a PDF manual. It should still be easily searchable in iBooks, so you can look up precisely the function you need. Unfortunately, this does mean that the manual is no longer In-App.


jobromedia: that's a great suggestion, but I can't afford to spend that much time on building out a robust "help" section =( Maybe if I hit #1 app or something... For now, I will just link to a YouTube playlist of How-To videos.

Sascha: Your offline point is a really good one. If you have iBooks installed, then you can read the PDF offline (or you can download it from the website to another device.) I was going to include the videos in the app, but it is already a couple hundred MB for the samples and I don't want to fill up people's iPads with tutorials!

Thanks to everybody for their input on the help stuff.

I decided that having it all was better than picking one, so i have 27 minutes of video: http://youtube.com/xitiveinc and a pdf manual: http://stochastik.xitive.com/manual.pdf and pop-up help: http://stochastik.xitive.com/marketing/tutorial-screenshot.p ng

Hopefully this will give everyone the kind of help they like best.