Introducing the new and improved AppSheet Help Cen...

lizlynch · 05-02-2022 09:28 AM

We are excited to announce the new and improved AppSheet Help Center is now available at: support.google.com/appsheet

Topic-level redirection from the existing documentation site will provide seamless access to topics in the AppSheet Help Center. Note: Access to content at help.appsheet.com will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes in order to implement topic-level redirection.

The new AppSheet Help Center retains all existing articles, and addresses many of the usability issues that have been raised with our current doc site, including:

More learning assistance such as videos, tutorials, and community tips that address common use cases
Improved search and navigation
Roadmap for using AppSheet to provide guidance on the overall app development process and what to do next
Filter the AppSheet function list
Content refresh to update or remove out-dated content and implement stylistic changes
Feedback on docs

More details are provided below.

✅ More learning assistance

More robust get-started content, more links to relevant learning resources throughout, and better integration with the AppSheet Community provide you with assistance when and where you need it!

Get to the information you need in fewer clicks using the optimized search engine, top and sidebar navigation, and breadcrumbs.

✅ Roadmap for using AppSheet

Access the comprehensive Roadmap for using AppSheet that outlines the AppSheet flow and content organization.

✅ Filter the AppSheet function list

Filter the AppSheet function list to find the functions you need to build simple and complex expressions.

✅ Content refresh

Content has been refreshed as noted below:

Implemented stylistic changes for consistency with other Google Help Centers
Processes and screenshots have been updated where appropriate
Content on retired features (including workflows and reports) has been removed

✅ Feedback on docs

Provide feedback on the documentation by clicking Send feedback about our Help Center link in the bottom right corner of the AppSheet Help Center. You can provide general feedback or feedback specific to AppSheet.

SkrOYC

Here we go again

lizlynch

Hi,

I can appreciate your concern! With this move, we are hoping that you find the overall experience to be an improvement over the existing site. We are doing our best to minimize any disruption, including topic-level redirection to the new site and minimal reorganization of content.

Thanks!
Liz

SkrOYC

Thanks for your comments Liz.
I know, it's not your fault or anything, it's just the "Google-fication" of AppSheet that bothers me.

Discourse => GCC
Intercom => Google Help Center

There are better tools for this and the people incharge should know that, but Google Policies are making the AppSheet experience worse, eventhough there is a lot of talented people trying their best, like yourself.

I don't know where this is going to end

lizlynch

I greatly appreciate you communicating your concerns.

Just to reiterate from a doc perspective, we hope that the usability improvements (coming in May and beyond) will be a net positive and will stay engaged with the community to address any concerns the best that we can.

Your general product concerns have been escalated to the team.

We appreciate this input... and more importantly this community!

Liz

Steve

Google's help platform is a huge improvement over Intercom.

Joseph_Seddik

I actually like it much. I believe AppSheet documentation needed a long-due overhaul. When you told me several weeks ago that you were working on a new site for documentations that was good news, but I didn't expect it to be that good 🙂

I especially like the Roadmap and the Filtering functionality. I believe these are in the right direction towards helping newcomers adopt AppSheet, which is not that evident with the current site. Well done!

lizlynch

😁 Thanks for this input! I was wondering how those enhancements would be received! This is all just a first step -- we were really trying to minimize the disruption with the initial move. Expect more incremental improvements after the initial launch. Feedback is definitely encouraged!

Appreciate the feedback!

Liz

Joseph_Seddik

Count on that 😃

dbaum

I'll certainly withhold judgment until we see it, but since we're sharing pre-reactions...

Really looking forward to "Filter the AppSheet function list". I'm sure that will be handy to keep in an open browser tab.

Really appreciate that "Processes and screenshots have been updated where appropriate". As an newish AppSheet user lacking any context of the product's evolution, I've encountered many confusions in referencing the help documentation. I know from direct experience how challenging it is to keep help documentation evergreen while you rapidly innovate the product it supports, and laud the effort to undertake this.

FWIW, I do also share some of @SkrOYC's concerns. I've always found Google help documentation not only wanting, but sterile. Current AppSheet help documentation also has many impactful gaps, oversights, and imprecisions, but at least always has a personable tone.

SkrOYC

I took a very light look at the new site.

Early feedback from my side is that the new site is still using screenshots from the old default AppSheet look

lizlynch

Thank you for this feedback! We did make an effort to update many of the screenshots. Will take another passthrough the content to specifically update any remaining images. We've maintained the videos that might have out-dated UI if the discussion is still useful.

If there are specific sections that are causing a lot of confusion, please provide links so the sections can be prioritized!

Thank you!

Joseph_Seddik

I miss knowing the name of an article’s author in the new site..

lizlynch

Thanks for this feedback! We didn't migrate over this information from the existing help center. Though, we might consider adding back this type of information to our articles. We will look into your suggestion.

Joseph_Seddik

Thanks Liz!

Joseph_Seddik

@lizlynch All links in AppSheet's website still points to the old help center. Maybe you can just do a URL redirection directly to the new site, and add a link to the legacy site in the new one.

lizlynch

Hi @Joseph_Seddik ,
The redirection was still in progress. There are a few links that may need to be adjusted to ensure that they navigate to the correct article in the new Help Center, but all links should now redirect to the new Help Center! Let me know if you notice any issues and we'll get them corrected as quickly as possible!

Joseph_Seddik

@lizlynch Thank you Liz. The few links I've seen seem to redirect correctly to the new site. However, behold the big security warning of the browser 🙂 Seems the SSL certificates still need to synchronize or something.

The connection displays this error: SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN

takuya_miyai

@lizlynch

I can't determine if this is the problem, but it seems that the redirect fails if it is a http link.
By the way, the first URL in this Post is a http link.

http://help.appsheet.com/

takuya_miyai

@lizlynch

Oh...

There seem to be many http links left on the web.

lizlynch

@takuya_miyai - Thank you for reporting these issues! We will definitely look into this. Apologies for the inconvenience.

lizlynch

@takuya_miyai - I am happy to report the issue with HTTP links has been fixed!
Please let us know if you still notice any issues.

takuya_miyai

Thanks @lizlynch ,

I can confirm that it has improved!😄

lizlynch

😎 That's great news!! Thanks for reporting back!

SkrOYC

Can we expect https://intercom.help/appsheet/en/ to keep working for some time? I really would like to keep using it, I got used to it while the Google Support/Help page haven't match my liking

lizlynch

No, I am sorry. We aren't able to maintain the old site.

Joseph_Seddik

@lizlynch Would you please change the new site's favicon to be more specific? I'm using minimalized bookmarks and this Google Search favicon is not helping. Thank you!

lizlynch

Thanks for this feedback! Will share this with the team to see if it's possible to change it.

Joseph_Seddik

Yes please. I'm aware that technically this is a simple change, but now AppSheet's help is part of Google's Help platform and unfortunately the latter doesn't have a dedicated logo as one of Google's products. But it is a separate product, and a very good one, so it deserves its own logo 🙂

Joseph_Seddik

Just got the chance to delve more into the new site and I'd like to say it's really really good. Information are much more organized and accessible, you feel correlation and consistency, and most importantly it makes learning AppSheet much more easier. Good Work!

The only comment I have is about the font size which I believe is too small with tight line spacing. I think a better template should be used for the articles. The old site had it much better. That's all.

And by the way, thanks for the Dark Mode!! I hope we see it in in this community!

lizlynch

😃🎉

Super happy to hear!! Thank you for the feedback!
Let me look into the font size... and if Dark Mode is on the roadmap for the Community!

lizlynch

@Joseph_Seddik - I was informed that Dark Mode IS on the Community roadmap, but not sure how soon it will be implemented. There is a Dark Mode Chrome extension that you might consider in the meantime (if you are using Chrome)?

As per font resizing, I confirmed that it's a fixed size across the support sites for consistency; we cannot customize it. You can adjust sizing using their browser or phone settings (as I'm sure you already know).

Hope this helps!

Liz

Joseph_Seddik

@lizlynch I'm on Safari, but being on the roadmap is already good news! Please keep updated. OK for the font size, no problem.

Regarding the feedback on the help site's articles, just to clarify, I need you please just to check if the two comments I made are received, just to test the new site and see whether feedback is reaching you correctly. Thank you.

lizlynch

I'm looking into this now! I am sure the information is being collected, I just need to get on the right distribution list. Will respond back when I can access it. If it's something urgent that needs to be changed, let me know! (Thanks for testing this process!)

Joseph_Seddik

There are discrepancies between the return values in the article and the actual return value returned by the command. The information is wrong, but I wouldn't say correction is urgent; because an app creator would spot the error quickly.

It is more about testing the process please. This is what I'd rather qualify as urgent. Thank you!

Koichi_Tsuji

If you seach with "Workflow" with new platform, tons of old articles are down there still. I m not impressed.

Joseph_Seddik

I agree, and not only for "workflow"; the help content needs a revamp. Old interface, options that are no longer there, obsolete screenshots, etc. That's true.

Koichi_Tsuji

As you rightly pointed out before, the font is too tiny. Due to my aged eyes, i can not read anything, so I never visited new site.

SkrOYC

At least the old https://intercom.help/appsheet/en/ is still working.

Damn, I love that place

lizlynch

@Koichi_Tsuji - Apologies, can you please elaborate on this? I am aware that some of the content still needs a refresh, but I'm wondering what you meant specifically for "workflows". We did make an effort to update a number of articles, but realize there are still more that need to be refreshed. We'll make this a priority.