Are tips of the day, like in 90s Microsoft products, on application start an effective and non-deleterious way of improving discoverability?
I remember from using 90s and I think also 2000s versions of software, mostly from Microsoft that there would often be a window (like the screenshotted one, although with non-joke advice), that would tell the user about some feature of the program, presumably to aid in discoverability of that feature. I remember this happening in either MS Office or Visual Studio, with the 95/98/2000 UI style. I tried to find better screenshots than this joke, but as I do not know the proper term for this technique I could not do so. In fact, I could find absolutely no information about this whatsoever other than these joke screenshots.
I have three questions:
- What is the proper name for this technique? (to facilitate further research)
- Why did it fall out of favor?
- Is it a good way (meaning effective and not otherwise deliterious, like annoying the user or making them feel talked down to) of educating users about how to use the software best? / Did it fall out of favor for a good reason? / Is it an anti-pattern?