An assistant is a secondary window that guides the user through an operation by breaking it into sequential steps. Assistants are useful for making complex operations less intimidating, as they restrict the information visible to the user at any given moment.
Because assistants provide a relatively small number of controls on the screen at any given time, they have sufficient space for inline documentation. Therefore, do not include a button in an assistant window. If you cannot make an operation sufficiently clear in an assistant without resorting to a button, you need to simplify it further.
Assistants do have major downsides. After using an assistant it is often hard to figure out where the individual settings aggregated into the assistant are stored. Often people will resort to re-running the assistant, re-entering many settings that they don't want to change. Why do they need to re-enter anything? The assistant should be populated with the existing settings whenever it is run.
![[Warning]](images/warning.png) | Warning |
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Assistants are often used in situations where a better solution would be to simplify, or even better automate, the process. Before using an assistant to step people through a complex operation, consider if the operation can be fundamentally simplified so an assistant is unnecessary. |
Window Commands:Close, Minimize/Unminimize, Roll-up/Unroll
The first page provides the user with the "big picture". Place the title of the assistant in the window's title bar and the assistant's title area, along with an optional picture. Beneath this, state the goal of the assistant, and, if it is not obvious, where the user can find the information the assistant will be asking for.
Might want to do/mention something about first-time setup assistants, as there's some inconsistency about whether pressing Cancel in such a beast should just cancel the setup and start the application, or cancel out of the application altogether. Possible options: Just decide what Cancel should do-- in which case, I'd prefer it just to cancel the druid and run the app; or consider adding a "Skip Setup" button to the front page of first-time setup druids-- clearer, but would need extra code if the druid was available within the application too, which most are. -Calum.
Icon:Same as application
Title Format:Assistant Title
Buttons:,
Content pages contain the actual settings of the assistant. Summarize the type of setting present on each content page in its title area. For example, Mail Server.
Title Format:Assistant Title - (Current
Page of Total Pages)
Buttons:, ,