Goodbye doc.itc! Hello IT Center Help!
IT Center Help – Here you will find answers to your questions. No matter if it is about eduroam or RWTHmoodle. Find instructions and information easily, fast and comfortable. (help.itc.rwth-aachen.de)
Source: Own illustration
It is time! We have been waiting for this for a long time and could hardly wait. We have designed, developed, tested, optimized and asked for your feedback. IT Center Help is now officially the new documentation platform of the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University. Here you can find all information about the IT Center Services, instructions for applications for study and teaching and much more.
With the Go Live of IT Center Help we also say goodbye to our documentation portal doc.itc.rwth-aachen.de. For more than six years, we have been providing information about IT Center Services and instructions for you here.
Now we want to support you with IT Center Help on a new page with a modern look and a user-friendly interface in the matter of IT services.
Our Intentions
In the last few weeks, attentive readers have certainly noticed that we have called for user tests and looked for friendly users. We wanted to know what is important to you and how you are coping with our prototype of IT Center Help. All in all, we conducted several user tests during development and are still very grateful for your feedback. Usability and usability, these were the goals we set ourselves at the very top of our list. Many thanks again to all participants for their valuable suggestions and insights!
The Search
Since user behaviour, like so much in the world, changes and evolves, we have included a prominent search field, especially on the start page. But you can also find it on the subpages, so that you can use the search field at any place. If you have relevant terms that you want to search for, you can enter them here. Behind the search there are algorithms which make the search better the more often it is used. In our user tests we also saw that the search works great: while entering search terms, the target term was always among the six search suggestions. But you are welcome to try it out for yourself.
The Function Assignment by Colors
You may have noticed that we have a weakness for the colours dark and light blue as well as orange. This is no coincidence. Based on the corporate design of RWTH Aachen and our IT Center colors, we have also assigned colors to the functions on IT Center Help. So you can tell by the orange colour where you are in the application and what you have selected. Everything that can be clicked on has been immersed in a dark blue RWTH Aachen University colour. A nice example is the chat button, which you might remember from the documentation portal. It also got a make-over and now appears in a clickable dark blue – true to the consistent new color scheme.
So you can see at first sight what you can choose. Graphic representations, which are mainly used for visual purposes, complement the layout in light blue.
The Layout
We’ve also used simple, graphical representations to help you find the information you need quickly and easily. For example, on the home page of IT Center Help, you’ll find our dynamic teasers that show current, high-profile topics. In concrete terms, this means that, depending on the external circumstances, we include in the teasers those instructions that are in great demand at the time – no matter whether it’s the start of the semester, the restructuring of services or current circumstances such as the switch to home office. Without long searches we enable you to access the contents directly. The remaining content can still be found via the search and the navigation menu on the left side of the screen.
Direct access from status messages and frequently requested instructions is now also available on the IT Center Help homepage.
Source: Own illustration
Of course we also considered the smaller screens, i.e. the mobile view. As we are more and more on the move, and also call up instructions and information on smaller viewports, IT Center Help is also responsive on smartphones and the like. Of course, maintenance or malfunctions may occur and certain services may fail or need to be overhauled. For this reason, we have also placed the status messages on the start page of IT Center Help. Right next to the most frequently requested instructions you will find an overview of the current status of IT services.
The content
Providing information, instructions and much more for you in a transparent way was our guideline, which we followed. Already in the documentation portal you have been provided with a lot of information. On IT Center Help we have once again started to prepare this content, especially to prepare interesting information for you in a target group oriented way. Furthermore, you can now choose between German and English on the page itself using the buttons in the upper right corner of the screen. Please understand that we might not be able to provide all instructions in both languages yet. But we are there. Also the topic accessibility is and remains important to us. Not only in the user guidance, but also in the preparation of the contents, this is decisive and an ongoing process.
Much of it you may have noticed with one click or another, but it was important to us to share our ideas with you. You have not clicked IT Center Help, yet? Then do it quickly. Don’t forget to change the bookmarks to your favorite manuals. Since yesterday, the documentation portal doc.itc only refers to IT Center Help as well as the contents of the MATSE training and the events of the Chair of High Performance Computing, which will be moved in the future.
Thank you!
We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all those involved, developers, testers, colleagues and the IT Center management for this wonderful, exciting cooperation and their patience.
Feedback
You have feedback and want to let us know how you like IT Center Help? Leave us a comment here in the blog post below or send us an email to IT-ServiceDesk.
Responsible for the content of this post are Anja Custers, Nicole Filla and Martin Pieters.
Tolle Anwendung. Richtig schön geworden. ❤-lichen Glückwunsch. Bitte an das Team weitergeben
Hallo Sarah Grzemski,
vielen <3-lichen Dank für das schöne Feedback! Wir freuen uns sehr, dass wir mit IT Center Help eine solch tolle Anwendung launchen konnten 🙂
Die Glückwünsche werden an das gesamte IT Center Help-Team weitergegeben!
Viele Grüße
das IT Center Blog Team