[OT] Instructional design and the demise of AppleGuide

[Richard Gaskin]

I'm redesigning the Help system for a couple of the apps we develop, and 
  I'm attracted to some of the ideas of AppleGuide, esp. having tutorial 
info directly within the software itself so users can more easily 
perform the steps without switching back and forth between applications.

But Apple dropped AppleGuide long ago, and usually when I to think Apple 
does something for arbitrary reasons I find out later there was a sound 
rationale behind the decision.

Of course many aspects of AppleGuide were flawed, most notable its poor 
performance (how hard would we need to work to make something that takes 
as long to load with Rev?), but also perhaps they went too far with 
integration, with AppleGuide's "do this for me" requiring way too much 
work for most developers to deal with.

I have no interest in attempting to emulate AppleGuide's "do it for me", 
but I am interested in simpler models for bringing tutorial info 
directly into the application experience.

But maybe there's a good reason Apple went the other direction, moving 
all Help materials completely outside the app into their separate Help 
system in OS X.

Are any of you familiar with any materials describing the rationale for 
Apple's decision to turn 180 degrees from AppleGuide in OS X?

Research papers would be most helpful, but even offhand comments from 
interviews with Apple staff or others in the know would be good.

TIA -

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com