  Context: User assistance is generally defined as the guided assistance to a
user of a software system in order to help accomplish tasks and enhance user
experience. Automated user assistance systems are equipped with online help
system that provides information to the user in an electronic format and which
can be opened directly in the application. Various different automated user
assistance approaches have been proposed in the literature. However, there has
been no attempt to systematically review and report the impact of automated
user assistance systems. Objective: The overall objective of this systematic
review is to identify the state of art in automated user assistance systems,
and describe the reported evidence for automated user assistance. Method: A
systematic literature review is conducted by a multiphase study selection
process using the published literature since 2002. Results: We reviewed 575
papers that are discovered using a well-planned review protocol, and 31 of them
were assessed as primary studies related to our research questions.
Conclusions: Our study shows that user assistance systems can provide important
benefits for the user but still more research is required in this domain.
