Contextual help

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016291802-A1
Application number	US-201514675969-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 1, 2015
Priority date	Apr 1, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Contextual help is provided in an unobtrusive manner. The optimum point in time for displaying a help notification is determined by triggers associated with each help notification. The triggers may take into account various factors, such as the action currently being performed by the user, whether the tip has been presented to the user before, the user's past experience with the feature, and so forth

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method of providing contextual help for a computing device, the method comprising:
receiving, at the computing device, a set of contextual help notifications for presentation to a user, wherein each help notification is associated with
A) one or more show-trigger conditions which, when satisfied, indicate that the help notification should be presented on a user interface of the computing device, and
B) a withdraw-trigger condition which, when satisfied, indicates that the help notification should be disabled such that the help notification is not eligible for presentation on the user interface;
monitoring the computing device for show-trigger conditions and withdraw-trigger conditions; prior to presenting a first help notification to the user, determining that the withdraw-trigger condition for the first help notification is satisfied; upon the determination that the withdraw-trigger condition is satisfied, disabling the first help notification such that the first help notification is not eligible for presentation on the user interface.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the contextual help notifications are organized into a campaign that is directed at a specific audience of users.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the specific audience of users is determined based on at least one of region, operating system upgrade path, device type, device capabilities, or user subscriptions.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more show-trigger conditions include one or more of an action currently being performed by the user on the computing device, an action previously performed by the user on the computing device, an action performed by the user on another device, or the user's past experience with a feature associated with the help notification.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the computing device comprises communicating a result of the monitoring to a server that coordinates the contextual help across multiple computing devices associated with the user.

6 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining that show-trigger conditions for a second help notification are satisfied, wherein the show-trigger conditions for the second help notification include
A) a predetermined amount of time has passed since a predetermined event, and
B) the user has not performed a predetermined action within the predetermined amount of time since the predetermined event; and
presenting the second help notification on the user interface.

7 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining that a show-trigger condition for a second help notification is satisfied, wherein the show-trigger condition includes at least one of
A) a predetermined amount of time has passed since a predetermined event, or
B) determining that the user performed a predetermined action; and
presenting the second help notification on the user interface.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
while presenting the second help notification on the user interface, determining an occurrence of a dismiss-trigger condition associated with the second help notification; and removing the second help notification from the user interface.

9 . A method of providing contextual help for a computing device, the method comprising:
at a server, accessing a database that stores help notifications for providing the contextual help, wherein each help notification is associated with
A) one or more show triggers which, when satisfied, indicate that the help notification should be presented to the user, and
B) a withdraw trigger which, when satisfied, indicates that the help notification should be disabled such that the help notification is not eligible for presentation to the user;
communicating to a first user device and a second user device one or more of the help notifications for presentation to a user, wherein the user is associated with both the first user device and the second user device; receiving a notification from the first user device that the withdraw trigger for a first help notification is satisfied on the first user device; and based on receiving the notification from the first user device, sending a notification to the second user device that the withdraw trigger for the first help notification is satisfied.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the help notifications stored in the database are organized into campaigns that are each directed toward a respective audience of users.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the respective audience of users is determined based on at least one of region, operating system upgrade path, device type, device capabilities, or user subscriptions.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more show triggers include one or more of an action currently being performed by the user on the computing device, an action previously performed by the user on the computing device, an action performed by the user on another device, or the user's past experience with a feature associated with the help notification.

13 . The method of claim 9 , comprising:
accessing a user profile associated with the user; and identifying the audience of users to which the user belongs; wherein the one or more help notifications communicated to the first user device and the second user device are selected from the campaign that is targeted toward the identified audience.

14 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising limiting the total number of help notifications displayed to the user in a given time period.

15 . A system for providing contextual help for a computing device, the method comprising:
a database configured to store help notifications for providing the contextual help, wherein the help notifications are organized into campaigns, wherein each campaign is directed toward a respective audience of users, and wherein each help notification is associated with
A) a respective set of one or more show triggers which, when satisfied, indicate that the help notification should be presented to the user, and
B) a withdraw trigger which, when satisfied, indicates that the help notification should be disabled such that the help notification is removed from future consideration for presentation to the user; and
a server device configured to
A) communicate to a first user device and a second user device one or more of the help notifications for presentation to a user, wherein the user is associated with both the first user device and the second user device, and
B) receive a notification from the first user device that the withdraw trigger for a first help notification is satisfied on the first user device, and
C) based on having received the notification from the first user device, send a notification to the second user device that the withdraw trigger for the first help notification is satisfied.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein each help notification is further associated with a dismiss trigger which, when satisfied, indicates that an associated help notification currently displayed on a user interface should be removed from the user interface.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the respective audience of users is determined based on at least one of region, operating system upgrade path, device type, device capabilities, or user subscriptions.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more show triggers include one or more of an action currently being performed by the user on the computing device, an action previously performed by the user on the comp

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Beck Brian D
• Bader Stephen D
• Fuller Deana
• Frederickson Steven
• Mattox Jr Gregory T
• Quan Carmen
• Chakravarthula Srinivas
• Luengen Ross N
• Kommalapati Akshatha
• Hally J Craig
• Zou Song

Classifications

• G06F3/0481 Primary

  based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance · CPC title

• G06F9/4443

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/14

  Digital output to display device {; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units} · CPC title

• G06F9/453 Primary

  Help systems · CPC title

• G06F9/4451

  User profiles; Roaming · CPC title