Your Research Tool Should Not Need a Tour Guide

A product tour can make almost anything look straightforward. The more revealing moment comes later, when an HR consultant just wants to find a decision, open the source and work out what to do next. The software should not require a fond memory of its guide.

The difference between a search result, a reviewed source and a draft should be visible where the work happens. If someone has to memorise unfamiliar labels or ask what a button does, the interface needs work.

We're bringing the separate parts of Tribuno together so researchers can move between them without losing their place. The product should make it clear where a decision came from and what a researcher can do next.

Try this illustrative question: how do selected tribunal decisions describe investigation steps? Search, open a decision, inspect a passage, then get back to your results. Can you tell what you have reviewed and how to narrow the question? That short exercise says more about everyday usability than a feature list long enough to need its own tour.

Tribuno's public starting path includes help and sample material so people can see the approach before deciding whether it suits their work. A sample shows a workflow; it cannot promise that a collection will answer every question. When you assess any research tool, notice where you lose your place, need an explanation or cannot tell what to check next. Those are the questions worth asking.