Top 8 UX Patterns to Deliver Contextual Help Within Your Product

Contextual help is a UX design technique that offers immediate assistance to users within their product experience, minimizing the need for visiting external knowledge bases or raising support tickets. It can be delivered proactively by understanding users' questions and problem areas while they explore your app. There are eight UX patterns for contextual help: in-line instructions, trigger-based tooltips, modal pop-ups, help menus, onboarding checklists, guided tours, lightbox pop-ups, and banners. To ensure effective contextual help, it should be useful, relevant, specific, understandable, and unintrusive.