All categories
Explain Fields
Problem
New contributors do not have a comprehensive understanding of your data model and can feel overwhelmed by the new concepts and terminology.
Context
As contributors add to your project, it might be necessary to provide ongoing explanations for new concepts, new terminology, schema structure, specific formats (for coordinates for example, or how to name a person correctly), etc.
Solution
Because you do not know what your contributors might and might not know, give them all the help they could need as they are making a contribution.
- Tooltips
- Short reminders
- Terms explanations
- Step-by-step guide
- Visual examples
Providing clear guidance, labelling and help text is part of the basic user experience of your site. It is particularly important to think about this in the context of collaborative maintenance as users might be undertaking detailed and repetitive tasks. Even for simple tasks, understanding how a field should be populated is important to maintain data quality.
Related patterns
Learning Curve
Contributors may not feel confident about successfully participating in your project, especially if they believe that they need some expert knowledge in order to contribute.