“How can we help?” That’s the question that will greet you when you visit Arduino’s new Help Center site, which was released in its finalized version on October 8, 2020.

Recently, we reported on Arduino’s launch of a new search engine function to help users browse through Arduino’s digital ecosystem. The new Help Center is the next step to improve the Arduino user-experience and help you find the Arduino information you want as efficiently as possible.

A New Centralized Hub to Support Arduino Users

As the Arduino ecosystem has continued to expand over the past several years, users have experienced the need for a more robust and centralized help center. The Arduino community has grown enormously, with users experimenting with the tools and creating content to help others create projects – but as the wealth of content has grown, there has not been an easy way to find the particular bit of help you might need.

To that end, Arduino’s teams in Customer Support, Design, and Development have researched the data on user contact points and interactions in order to build a more helpful Help Center with simple, clear organization and user-friendly navigation.

One of the major target audiences for this initiative is New Users in the Arduino ecosystem, so that no matter where you begin your Arduino journey, there is a one-stop hub to find the most important information needed to take next steps with projects. However, the Help Center will also be of value to more seasoned users, as it simplifies the search process to find advanced-level projects and trainings.

With the new Help Center, Arduino has expanded the channels they use to provide support while integrating those channels into one central site. As members of the Arduino community continue to devise new projects and share information, Arduino plans to add new monthly articles to share the most relevant, interesting, and practical solutions.

You can get started whenever you need the Help center by clicking on the “?Help” icon at the bottom right-hand corner of any page on Arduino’s site.

The Four Sections of Arduino’s New Help Center

The new Arduino Help Center is cleanly and simply designed with just four sections to help you find what you need in as efficient and inspiring a way possible.

1. Search – at the top of the new Help Center page is the Search Bar where you can query exactly what you’re looking for and get access to all the available articles for your search term.

2. Article Categories – if you’re more broadly interested in categories of information or seeking inspiration, the next section features some of the most popular information available in the categories of Hardware (with topics including Portenta Family, Core boards, MKR Family, Nano Family, Shields and Carriers, and Yún board), Software (with topics such as IDE Settings, Installation, Compilation, and Upload), Arduino Create Apps (with topics including Web Editor, Arduino IoT Cloud, Arduino SIM card, Manager for Linux), Education (with topics such as Student kit, Certification, CTC Go, Starter Kit, Engineering Kit, CTC 101 and CTC UNO, Science Journal App, and Arduino Chromeapp), Store Support (with information on Shipping and Payments & invoices), and About Arduino (where you can find out more about the Arduino Community and publications, My Arduino Account, and Arduino Logo and Trademarks).

3. Tutorials – next you can find tutorials in the categories of “Getting Started,” “Foundations,” “Built-in Examples,” “Examples from Libraries,” and “Hacking”.

4. More Support – finally, if you still haven’t found what you’re looking for or you prefer to communicate directly with the Arduino support staff or other user in the community, in the final section you can “Contact Us,” “Ask the Community,” or browse the “Project Hub”.

Next Steps 

Arduino continues to look for ways to improve the user experience and the value of the content it offers – and as an Arduino partner, our team here at Vilros loves to contribute to the efforts with insights from our own community.

Let us know about your experience with Arduino articles - are there any you’ve found especially helpful or in some way lacking? If you have any suggestions for new content or improved content, please let us know!

And make sure to check back here, as our Vilros blog continues to add new updates and insights about Arduino and Raspberry Pi.