Provide a help system.
Make sure the user can access a help system for your application at any time. A help system can be built in several ways. The most interesting way of being helped is when providing contextual help. In this way, your user will not lose time by searching the right information within the help section, but will be served with related -contextual- help depending on which screen or in which feature of the user interface he / she is located.
Other ways of providing help are:
- non-contextual help
- user manual
- tutorial
- training
- e-learning (if applicable)
- chat
Besides that, during your onboarding process, when using the application for the first time, the user can receive tips & instructions about how to use the application / interface. It should be possible for the user to skip this information.
Provide access without Internet connection.
This guideline is not applicable for web applications, websites or mobile sites. For native apps and client/server applications however, it is important that the user can access the application without Internet connection. In this way, he/she can consult stored data, check the evolution of measured data, etc.
When no Internet connection is available, the user should be informed about it in a comprehensive way. When internet connectivity fails, the application must continue to operate based upon existing history and be able to sync (if the case) when connectivity is restored.
Also, should the design of native applications consider the volume of data and avoid unnecessary traffic.