I've recently had to try and learn two new software packages for my business. In the process, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of software could be documented far, far better.
So if you are one of those people who writes this kind of documentation, may I humbly suggest a few ideas....
- You've probably been working on this software full time for an extended period of time. It's your life, your baby, I get it. But remember that although you are totally familiar with it, new users won't be.
- If you are writing documentation for business users, remember that you are a specialist, your audience are probably generalists. Write a glossary for any specialist or IT terms you use, and try to use as few of them as possible. After all, if I was enough of an IT specialist to be able to understand all this gobbledegook, I'd be in a different business and probably earning a lot more money !
- Business people are busy and usually multi-tasking. Chances are, they are looking to perform a specific task, and want to know how to do it, fast. Make the titles of knowledgebase articles task-oriented. "Virtual Printer Installation and Configuration" isn't helpful. "How to print customer invoices" is far more useful.
- Structure your documentation for someone who is in a hurry to perform a specific task, and just wants to scan through or search to easily find what it is they need to do right at that moment.
- At the top of each item or article, list out as a clear separate section what previous knowledge or setup is required for that specific task, ideally with links to those articles. Think of it as a focused checklist - what needs to be in place for that specific set of instructions to work ?
- When the software is inevitably updated, make sure that the documentation is updated at the same time. Not just the main article, but anything else that mentions whatever has changed. Focus on getting new screenshots and making sure that any menus, buttons or options are correctly described, and that steps added or removed are correctly described. Even PayPal messes this one up !
- Test your documentation. Give it to your newest recruit, or a friend, or a random stranger and see if they can follow it without any prompting from you. If they can't, or hesitate or get confused, it tells you that what you've written needs to be clearer and/or worded more simply.
Doing all this isn't easy. But I promise, when it's done well, it is really appreciated by the users of your software. Backed up by a quality support team, it'll make your software stand out as an excellent product and give you a great competitive edge.