Adaptive help system

1. A method of customizing a help system comprising:

receiving, using at least one processor, the help system providing help for a software product executing on a processor, said software product used in performing data storage management;

determining, using said at least one processor, a plurality of proficiency levels for a user in accordance with proficiency criteria including one or more previous interactions of the user with any of the help system and performing an operation using a feature of the software product, wherein each of the plurality of proficiency levels denotes a proficiency level for the user in connection with a different one of a plurality of areas of data storage management;

determining, using said at least one processor, a customized help system for the user in accordance with the plurality of proficiency levels in the plurality of areas of data storage management for the user, wherein the customized help system is a modified version of the help system;

automatically invoking the customized help system responsive to detecting that the user has received a same error multiple times as a result of performing a same operation multiple times;

receiving a self-rating regarding proficiency by the user, said self-rating indicating that the user has a first of the plurality of proficiency levels in a first area of the plurality of areas of data storage management; and

decreasing, for the user, the first proficiency level in the first area to another of the plurality of proficiency levels, said another proficiency level denoting a lower level of proficiency than the first proficiency level, and wherein said decreasing is performed responsive to user interactions including an amount of time it takes the user to correct a pending error in the first area, wherein said decreasing decreases an associated level of proficiency of the user in the first area to said another proficiency level responsive to the user taking a first amount of time to correct the pending error in the first area and the first amount of time is longer than a specified amount of time associated with the first proficiency level.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

modifying at least one of the plurality of proficiency levels of the user in response to the user's interactions including any of a user selection from a user interface element of a displayed page of a graphical user interface, and a user interaction with any of the help system and the customized help system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein modifying the at least one proficiency level includes increasing the at least one proficiency level of the user in response to the user performing any of interacting with a user interface to perform an advanced operation and selecting to view information included in any of the help system and customized help system regarding an advanced topic.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein modifying the at least one proficiency level includes decreasing the at least one proficiency level in response to any of the user activating a step-by-step wizard to perform an operation and a user selecting help topics having a predefined proficiency level which is less than a current level of proficiency indicated by the at least one proficiency level of the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proficiency criteria includes the self-rating regarding proficiency by the user, and further includes a total amount of interaction time of the user with any of the software product and help system, a predetermined proficiency level associated with first content of the help system whereby the first content is viewed or used by the user, an amount of time since the user last used the software product, and an amount of time since the user last performed an operation having a predetermined proficiency level.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the software product includes a data storage management application whereby help for the software product is provided to the user using the help system and the customized help system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method includes generating the customized help system and the generating includes determining, in accordance with the plurality of proficiency levels of the user, a feature of the help system to disable or hide whereby the feature is disabled or hidden from the user in the customized help system.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method includes:

performing, by the user with the plurality of proficiency levels, a query of content of the customized help system; and

displaying results of the query, wherein the results have any of an ordering and hierarchical structure determined in accordance with the plurality of proficiency levels of the user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the help system and the customized help system include any of viewable content describing features of the software product, a wizard providing step by step operations performed to complete a particular task using the software product, viewable content describing setup and configuration of the software product, viewable content describing troubleshooting or problem solving for the software product, searchable content, helpful hints or tips, white papers or links thereto, instructional videos or links thereto, knowledge bases or links thereto, links to selected website locations providing relevant information.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

displaying content from the customized help system in response to a first interaction of the user with a user interface of the software product, wherein the content displayed is selected in accordance with the first interaction and that plurality of proficiency levels of the user.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first interaction includes a user explicitly requesting information from the help system.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first interaction includes a user performing any of a same operation unsuccessfully a predetermined number of times and an operation resulting in an error condition, and the method includes:

automatically detecting the first interaction performed by the user; and

automatically performing said displaying in response to said detecting.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customized help system includes any of content that is organized or presented in a first hierarchical structure based on the plurality of proficiency levels of the user wherein the first hierarchical structure is different than a hierarchical structure of the same content included in the help system.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customized help system and software product are partitioned into a plurality of areas, wherein the user is assigned the plurality of proficiency levels each associated with a different one of the plurality of areas.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the customized help system is customized in each of the plurality of areas in accordance with one of the plurality of proficiency levels associated with said each area, and wherein the method includes:

modifying at least one of the plurality of proficiency levels for the user in accordance with the proficiency criteria, wherein a modified set of the plurality of proficiency levels for the user are generated as a result of said modifying; and

generating a second customized help system for the user in accordance with the modified set for the user, wherein the second customized help system is a modified version of the customized help system.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon that, when executed, performs a method of customizing a help system comprising:

receiving, using at least one processor, the help system providing help for a software product executing on a processor, said software product used in performing data storage management;

determining, using said at least one processor, a plurality of proficiency levels for a user in accordance with proficiency criteria including one or more previous interactions of the user with any of the help system and performing an operation using a feature of the software product, wherein each of the plurality of proficiency levels denotes a proficiency level for the user in connection with a different one of a plurality of areas of data storage management;

determining, using said at least one processor, a customized help system for the user in accordance with the plurality of proficiency levels in the plurality of areas of data storage management for the user, wherein the customized help system is a modified version of the help system;

automatically invoking the customized help system responsive to detecting that the user has received a same error multiple times as a result of performing a same operation multiple times;

receiving a self-rating regarding proficiency by the user, said self-rating indicating that the user has a first of the plurality of proficiency levels in a first area of the plurality of areas of data storage management; and

decreasing, for the user, the first proficiency level in the first area to another of the plurality of proficiency levels, said another proficiency level denoting a lower level of proficiency than the first proficiency level, and wherein said decreasing is performed responsive to user interactions including an amount of time it takes the user to correct a pending error in the first area, wherein said decreasing decreases an associated level of proficiency of the user in the first area to said another proficiency level responsive to the user taking a first amount of time to correct the pending error in the first area and the first amount of time is longer than a specified amount of time associated with the first proficiency level.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:

modifying at least one of the plurality of proficiency levels of the user in response to the user's interactions including any of a user selection from a user interface element of a displayed page of a graphical user interface, and a user interaction with any of the help system and the customized help system.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein modifying the at least one proficiency level includes increasing the at least one proficiency level of the user in response to the user performing any of interacting with a user interface to perform an advanced operation and selecting to view information included in any of the help system and customized help system regarding an advanced topic.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein modifying the at least one proficiency level includes decreasing the at least one proficiency level in response to any of the user activating a step-by-step wizard to perform an operation and a user selecting help topics having a predefined proficiency level which is less than a current level of proficiency indicated by the proficiency level of the user, and wherein the proficiency criteria includes the self-rating regarding proficiency by the user, and further includes any of a total amount of interaction time of the user with any of the software product and help system, a predetermined proficiency level associated with first content of the help system whereby the first content is viewed or used by the user, an amount of time since the user last used the software product, and an amount of time since the user last performed an operation having a predetermined proficiency level.

20. A system comprising:

a data storage system including one or more storage devices;

a management system including a management application executing thereon for managing the data storage system, the management system including a memory comprising code stored thereon, which is executed by a processor of the management system and performs processing including:

receiving, using at least one processor, the help system providing help for a software product executing on a processor, said software product used in performing data storage management;

determining, using said at least one processor, a plurality of proficiency levels for a user in accordance with proficiency criteria including one or more previous interactions of the user with any of the help system and performing an operation using a feature of the software product, wherein each of the plurality of proficiency levels denotes a proficiency level for the user in connection with a different one of a plurality of areas of data storage management;

determining, using said at least one processor, a customized help system for the user in accordance with the plurality of proficiency levels in the plurality of area of data storage management for the user, wherein the customized help system is a modified version of the help system;

automatically invoking the customized help system responsive to detecting that the user has received a same error multiple times as a result of performing a same operation multiple times;

receiving a self-rating regarding proficiency by the user, said self-rating indicating that the user has a first of the plurality of proficiency levels in a first area of the plurality of areas of data storage management; and

decreasing, for the user, the first proficiency level in the first area to another of the plurality of proficiency levels, said another proficiency level denoting a lower level of proficiency than the first proficiency level, and wherein said decreasing is performed responsive to user interactions including an amount of time it takes the user to correct a pending error in the first area, wherein said decreasing decreases an associated level of proficiency of the user in the first area to said another proficiency level responsive to the user taking a first amount of time to correct the pending error in the first area and the first amount of time is longer than a specified amount of time associated with the first proficiency level.