What is contextual help?
Contextual help is assistance that changes based on where the user is and what they are doing in the product, so the answer matches the screen in front of them. It ranges from a tooltip on a single field to an assistant that knows the user's current page and answers accordingly.
Different types of contextual help
A tooltip that explains the field a user is hovering over is contextual help, and a help center article they have to search for is not. Between those two ends there is a range. An inline hint that appears when a user pauses on a step. An empty state that explains what a screen is for. A help panel that opens to the article for the current page rather than to a search box. And, at the far end, an assistant that knows which page the user is on and who they are, and answers with that in mind.
In every case the help knows something about the user's situation. The more it knows, the less the user has to explain and the shorter the answer can be.
Why contextual help works
A help center article has to describe an interface in prose. The user then has to map the prose back onto the screen, which is where the mistakes and the abandonment happen. Contextual help removes the mapping step. It can refer to the button by its label and point at it, and it can give a different answer to a different user. The question "why is this greyed out" has one answer for a user on a free plan and another for an admin who has not connected an integration yet.
Static help versus an AI assistant
Static contextual help is labor. Each tooltip and panel is written for one screen and has to be revisited when the screen changes. The number of screens multiplied by the rate of change is the maintenance load, and for a product that ships weekly it is large.
Contextual help from an AI assistant moves the work from placement to knowledge. If the assistant has learned the product and can read the current page, it can help on any screen, including screens that did not exist when it was set up. What has to stay current is the assistant's knowledge of the product, and that is one thing to keep current instead of one thing per screen.
How Frigade fits
Frigade's assistant reads the page the user is on and the user properties the customer passes in, and answers from its own knowledge of the product. That gives contextual help on every screen without placing anything per screen, and a screen that shipped yesterday is covered on the same terms as one that shipped a year ago.
Common questions
- What is the difference between contextual help and in-app guidance?
- Contextual help is a property and in-app guidance is a location. Guidance inside the product can be contextual, meaning it changes with the user's screen and situation, or generic, meaning the same panel appears everywhere. Most of the value of in-app guidance comes from the contextual part.
- How do you add contextual help to a SaaS product?
- The traditional route is to place tooltips and help panels on each screen by hand, using a guidance tool or your own components, and keep them updated as screens change. The newer route is an assistant that knows the product and reads the current page, which supplies context for every screen without placing anything per screen.
- In-app guidanceIn-app guidance is help delivered inside the product interface, where the user is working, instead of in a separate help center, email, or support ticket. It includes tooltips, walkthroughs, checklists, contextual hints, and in-product assistants that answer questions and complete tasks.
- Knowledge baseA knowledge base is a searchable collection of articles, guides, and answers that explains how a product works, so users and support agents can find answers without asking someone. In SaaS it usually means a public help center plus an internal library that support agents and AI assistants draw on.
- Customer onboardingCustomer onboarding is the process of taking a new customer from the point of purchase to the point where they are getting the value they bought the product for. In B2B SaaS it covers implementation, account setup, training, and the first weeks of use, and it is judged by time to value and by whether the account is still active at renewal.
- Ticket deflectionTicket deflection is when a customer resolves a question on their own, through self-service help or an automated assistant, instead of opening a support ticket. The deflection rate is the share of would-be tickets resolved this way, and it is the main number used to judge whether self-service is working.