Help text is a short message that provides a quick overview of the functionality of a website tool.
Adding help text to a website garners many advantages, not just to the end-user, but to the web designer too.
Help text can be used to help you. As a designer writing small messages next to each website function can serve as a memos. This can assist the designer in tracking what features have and haven’t been added to the website.
Forgotten what the blank button you made 2 weeks ago functions as? Adding help text to functions you have recently finished and are working on will remind you should you ever come across this query.
Then there is the obvious advantage of help text telling the user what certain functions do when the website is live. This will hopefully keep the questions and answers section much smaller on the forums.