Interaction design
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UX research
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Visual design
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Requirements gathering
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User validation
Modular documentation, defined as small chunks of reusable and reconfigurable content, provides a way to publish documentation faster and to narrow in on the content users need.
The documentation UI should guide users between specific documentation and the larger context surrounding that concept with ease.
Product documentation written as a complete, comprehensive book intending to cover every possible scenario was time consuming to write, was costly to maintain, and did not quickly connect struggling users to the right answer.
Write documentation as topics focused on a single task that can be combined into more comprehensive guides covering larger concepts or goals.
Improve search functionality on our customer support site and within documentation to help users find the right answers quickly.
More links between documentation to help users continue learning how to use products.
Autosuggest getting started product guides when users search for a product name or other generic search terms. These “low intent” searches made up a majority of search requests.
Display sections via lazy load while allowing ctrl-f/cmd-f to search across the entire document.
Suggest next steps for either using the product or learning about the product from the getting started guide.
Write documentation as standalone topics to focus in on a single concept or task.
Mobile responsive design to meet the needs of 34% of surveyed users that report having to look at docs on their phone during a system outage.
Reviewed customer service tickets, user feedback, and analytics to identify customer issues.
Many issues related to our search results not providing helpful information, frustrating customers and causing them to open a support ticket or go to Google instead.
Compressed days 1-3 of Jake Knapp’s Design Sprint:
Defined the sprint goal as: Provide users the information they need, when they need it, and how they choose to consume it.
The "How Might We" activity that identified opportunities rather than issues or solutions was the most productive. The anonymous sticky notes allowed us to consider all participants' ideas equally.
Concept tested designs with large laminated printouts and dry erase markers. Spoke to 17 customers at the Red Hat Summit conference and 91 others gave feedback via a survey.
Learned that customers would not read additional information in a side panel, despite stating it is useful, and they do not want collapsable sections so they can use ctrl-f to search the entire page.
The MVP release standardized what metadata is included for all documentation and used our product design system for consistency between products and product support.
When designing the documentation publishing tool, I held virtual lo-fi design sessions with the content writers and developers to validate requirements and design assumptions. It helped the team feel involved in the design and build trust for later releases.
The benefit of modular documentation comes from being able to focus in on a specific topic, zoom out to a larger guide containing that topic, and link to related content along the way. The design had to provide robust navigation in a way that was not distracting or overwhelming.
Side panels held navigation to larger guides containing a topic or through topics within a guide. Related content is linked at the end of each section, collapsed by default.
Included a feedback prompt in the banner announcing the new documentation launch. Reviewed responses weekly and prioritized suggestions for the next release.
