This is the fifth in a series of suggested practices in creating Knowledge Base content.
You’ve created your content, triple-checked your steps to reproduce, but now what?
We’ve talked about the do's, now let's cover a few don’ts. You’ve put a lot of work into your content, now take another look.
Too complex or too much information
Content that is too complex can leave your audience feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. Just because you know all the steps and the background of how to complete something, doesn’t mean everyone will understand every step. While it is important to add background and additional information as needed, try not to cram everything you know about a topic in one article.
Every word counts. Use them wisely. Keep in mind that poorly organized information with extra details might not be retained and you might lose your reader with too much content.
Don't put quantity before quality
Quality over quantity applies not only to the volume of text in any one article but also the number of articles in a knowledge base. While we all would like to tout that we have a vast library of content, it’s irrelevant if it includes a large number of duplicates.
In addition, this makes keeping up with the content we do have harder to find and manage. For example, say an article has three duplicates that have, to a certain degree, varying amounts of information. Wouldn’t it be better to have just built on the original article as more information is learned instead of creating multiple articles about the same issue?
Not considering different types of learners
In recent posts, we have demonstrated differences between screenshots and attachments, but lets take it a step further.
- Images
- Video
Use images where it makes it easier to breakdown the information. For example, it takes paragraphs and steps of text to explain but using one image gets the point across loud and clear, with a descriptive sentence of what is happening in the image. Easy choice!
Also keep in mind the use of videos for those people who might be more visual, and would prefer to watch someone else perform the steps rather than reading through the instructions. Include both for easy consuming of information.
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Easy enough, right?
For more tips on creating good KB content, see:
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