Home/Patterns/Help center

Help center

In-product help across three surfaces — side panel, contextual hint, and full search overlay.

Stable3 compositions
COMPOSITION 01

Side panel · contextual

Help articles for the current page, search across all help, and a chat-with-support escape.

Use whenThe operator is stuck on a specific surface and clicks the help icon.
[ POS terminal behind ]

Help

For this page
How to close a shift
3 min read
Handling cash variance
4 min
Refunds and voids
5 min
Popular
First-time setup
8 min
Inviting members
3 min
COMPOSITION 02

Contextual hint · inline tooltip

A small "?" beside a label that reveals a short paragraph on hover.

Use whenA specific field needs explanation in-place, without taking the operator away.
%
COMPOSITION 03

Full search overlay · ⌘?

Search across the entire help corpus + recent articles + contact options. Bigger than the side panel.

Use whenThe operator triggers help via ⌘? — they want a search experience, not curated suggestions.
Articles · 4
How to handle cash variance
POS · 4 min read · last updated 12 Apr
Cash variance over tolerance — what happens?
POS · 3 min
Adjusting cash variance threshold
Settings · 2 min
Cash-up best practices
Operations · 6 min
Contact
Start a chat with support
Avg response 8 min

Shared rules

Do

Lead with help articles for the current page.

Don't

Open help in a new tab.

Do

Provide chat as the escalation path.

Don't

Auto-open help. Only on user trigger.