Validity of in-line help content over time as users graduate from novice to Intermediate stages

Question

This is a question in regards to an Enterprise product.

Consider a selection menu -

Option 1

help text (2 liner max)

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Option 2

help text (2 liner max)

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Option 3

help text (2 liner max)

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Notes -

1) This help text was added below the Options as there was feedback from new users that the Option Label itself was not sufficient to communicate the intent of the option.

2) Advanced users have come back saying that they do not need to see the help text every time as they are well aware of the options. This is very much understandable.

Questions -

Our product has both ends of the user expertise spectrum fairly distributed. Also, let's note that users graduate overtime. A tooltip cannot be used as we have seen very less usage of the same and creates extra friction for new users, compared to immediate help. Considering that standard interaction design principles recommend designing for the 'Intermediate User' (Alan Cooper, Dan Normal) - is tooltip the only way out? Or are there other thoughts?

Please advice. Thanks!

Answer 1

I would say that you need to consider the fact that there will be new users continually added to the system, so even if the existing design is not useful to the more advanced users (and have been designed to suit the new users), you should still keep it in some form.

It is commonly to try and track the balance/ratio of new versus existing users as well as the issues raised by users to help make these types of decisions. It is better to take a data-driven approach to design for these types of scenarios.