A New Help System for Drupal

Documentation is always one of the top concerns about Drupal, in surveys. Also, the help system within Drupal sites consistently shows up as having problems in usability testing -- it doesn't really help users figure out how to accomplish the tasks they are trying to accomplish. Here, we are proposing to improve the in-Drupal help system.

This needs to be done in Core. In past versions of Drupal, there were contrib modules (such as Advanced Help) that attempted to fix some of the problems with the Core help system, but they were not widely adopted. Getting the improved help system into Core would provide an officially-sanctioned way for Contrib maintainers to provide better help with their modules, themes, and distributions (and for Core to provide better help for itself), rather than hoping that people adopt a system provided by a Contrib module.

In this core conversation, I’ll present a proposed resolution for a new help system for Core. I’ll explain the current state of the project, what problems it attempts to solve, address some common questions, and what’s next. 

Let’s discuss the proposal and talk about some constructive ideas for what might be needed now or down the road to ensure that a new help system for Drupal 8 becomes a reality!

More information about the help system proposal and the problems it addresses may be found here: #2592487 [meta] Help system overhaul.