Current UI
Here is a poorly designed panel on a preferences dialog for the open source audio editor 'Audacity'. I'd like to do something about it.
How it got that way
In the past the text beside the radio buttons was short and cryptic. So many users were getting seriously unstuck with these options, we felt we had to put some more text there. Even at the time we made these changes to "Audacity", we were worried that it was becoming "Verbosity".
With the more wordy text it is still not 100% clear what these options do or why you would choose them. More explanation is needed. I want to trim the button text down back down to the short cryptic version, and design a nice way to present the detailed help text for each option.
Context Help in same Window
In line with answers to this question about context sensitive help in general, and my own instincts, pop-ups are out. So standard tooltips on hover, or a 'tell-me-more' link to open a new window aren't acceptable solutions.
I want a solution that is in the same window, and that makes it clear which text applies to which options. There is going to be more text than can fit in, so something is going to have to scroll or concertina...
Below is the preference panel for keyboard preferences. We're more space constrained here:
I want the user to be able to discover what 'Split Cut' means from the preferences panel. I'd like the context sensitive help to work 'in the same way' here.
How can I rearrange things to get the context sensitive help in?
Answer
How about this?
and this 
Also, I think that if you break down the list on the left to a few labeled logical groups, it will be a great improvement.
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