Technical websites help clients troubleshoot installation, and make sure your complex product is used and maintained correctly. Creating a support website is a good time to assess and improve technical support documents.
Getting the technical data onto a website is often considered the quickest work. Why not just dump it as a PDF link? After all, if you give the entire manual, somewhere in there is the answer the customer wants.
Let me remind you of the software’s industries oldest advice – NO ONE READS THE MANUAL
The most junior engineer at the manufacturing company wrote it when the product was designed many years ago. All later updates will be product specs and legislation changes. Items will have been added, but no-one removed the outdated information. It is unreadable, trust me.
Realising the manual is unreadable, sales teams add more downloads to the website. A PowerPoint with installation instructions, a sales leaflet with bullet point benefits and a picture, perhaps even social media ads everyone is very proud of.
None of these help the buyer who is trying to troubleshoot a problem that could be due to a specific combination of circumstances.
Complex products come with a steep learning curve, and you can’t afford to let customers get frustrated as they muddle through on their own.
Steps to improve technical documents for support websites
Creating a support website is a good time to simultaneously assess and improve your technical support documents. InTouch 24-7 helps clients sift through mountains of old manuals and guides, and we do what is called a “developmental edit” as we structure and add technical content to support websites.
Improving technical documentation content
- Simplify the wording. Shorten sentences.
- What is missing? Perhaps less common problems not included in the paper version?
- What needs to be cut? Information about company history, or early versions of the product can be elsewhere on the website.
- Are case studies and issues realistic, or are they from the 80’s?
- Does troubleshooting cover ALL likely problems, or just the FAQs that were easy to write?
- Is the content and writing style consistent? (It will have been written by multiple people experts.)
- Can a “newbie” follow the instructions?
- Is technical data referencing key product features and benefits (in case they are still deciding).
Improving technical documentation structure
- Add headings and subheadings.
- Change long descriptive paragraphs to step-by-step numbered points.
- Does one page deal with multiple problems? Separate them so they are searchable.
- Separate out “info dumps” – technical background customers don’t need.
- Can you change words to a table, a diagram, an infographic.
- Could complex actions and tasks be converted to a video.
- Has supporting research been separated out into an “in-depth” section for experts.
