How To Write A Software User Guide

[Jesper Sahu]

Auser manual is a document provided to a user that helps in using a particular system, product, or service seamlessly. It is also known as an instruction manual or a user guide. Such documents cover detailed information about operations, standards & guidelines, troubleshooting guides, functionalities & more.

Without visuals, your user manual will end up being a long wall of text without anything to break it up or catch the attention of your users. In this way, a lot of user manuals can be, well, boring to read.

Make your documentation interactive by adding relevant images, diagrams and videos for your users to engage with. Make it clear which step of the instructions your visuals are referring to so users can make sense of them.

Your users need to be able to search through your user manual using a predefined sense of structure to guide them. Your contents should have a logical hierarchical structure that makes sense to users when they are looking for information.

Ideally you need to make your content searchable for users by delivering it as an online knowledge base with a clear and prominent search bar. Your search bar should predict the terms that your users are typing in and search both the title and body content of your articles.

Actively seek feedback from your users on your user manual and take their suggested improvements into account. Find out whether your users are actually being successful with your manual and whether it is enabling them to solve their problems.

All user manuals are aimed at solving a problem for users. You need to find out what these problems are in order to create a truly helpful manual, and solve the problem with your instructions. Of course, if there is a deeply entrenched problem with the product itself then that should be fixed rather than simply providing workarounds in the documentation.

When writing your user manual, make sure you include practical examples alongside your instructions to show users the results they can expect to see if they complete the task. Your instructions should clearly explain what users will see or hear and any feedback they might get from the product.

You can customize your user manual with the Homepage Builder which allows you to add links, change colors, include categories from your manual, and much more. You can customize in more detail using CSS and JavaScript.

FrameMaker has good support for rich media so you can create immersive content with images and video. You can seamlessly collaborate with subject matter experts using the Adobe Acrobat desktop and online services.

The advantage of using Markdown is that the syntax makes it as readable as possible when writing your documentation. A Markdown-formatted document looks like it could be published without having been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.

Paligo is a Component Content Management System for teams. It provides an end-to-end platform for intelligent content and a single source of truth, so you can author your user manual with content reuse and structured authoring.

You can personalize your content for different audiences and publish it anywhere your customers need it, including HTML5, PDF print, SCORM eLearning, Zendesk, Salesforce, GitHub, BitBucket, Amazon S3, and much more. You only need to write your content once and then you can repurpose it with the click of a button.

User manuals are an indispensable part of your product or service and you should devote appropriate amounts of time and effort to its creation. There are a number of different tools available, each of them suitable for different organizations with varying needs. Take your time to test them out and decide which one suits you best.

Delivering a helpful user manual will result in more satisfied customers who will stay with your company for longer. Your customer service team will thank you for providing a method of self-service that helps minimize the number of customers contacting the help desk.

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Here's one of the more provocative ideas to arise from my hundreds of Corner Office interviews with top leaders and that I discuss in my just-published book: "Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation:" Wouldn't it be great if all managers wrote a "user manual" about their leadership style, in which they explain some of their unique preferences and quirks to the people they're managing?

Yes, it might sound a little weird, but consider the logic. Let's say you've just been put in charge of a new department with a dozen employees. From the very first day, your staff is going to be wondering what you're like -- your pet peeves, your quirks, and what it takes to earn a couple of gold stars from you. And they will find out these things over the course of a year, through trial and error, through observation, and maybe through some difficult conversations you have with them about something they've done or haven't done.

This isn't some what-if exercise. I've interviewed two executives who have written up the equivalent of a user manual for employees. Here's the first, from Ivar Kroghrud, who was the lead strategist of QuestBack at the time of my interview with him. An excerpt from our conversation:

Shortly after this interview ran, I heard from Luc Levesque, the founder of TravelPod and a vice president at TripAdvisor. He said he had also written up a manual of sorts for his staff, though he calls it a "blueprint." He explains it here:

What does everyone think of this idea? If you had to write a "user manual" for your staff, what would be the most important thing they should know about you (since they're going to learn about it over time, anyway)?

We all know that person that instinctively tosses the user manual out with the packaging without so much as a second glance. Some of us are that person. However, if you follow the process laid out in this blog, the user manuals you create will turn those user guide tossers into devoted readers in no time.

A user manual goes by many names. You may hear terms like instruction manual, user guide, maintenance manual, or technical documentation but they all mean the same thing. A user manual is designed for an end user to use your product or service properly or to find solutions to problems that arise through use. They can be provided in either print or digital format or both!

Use manuals contain detailed, step-by-step instructions for the end user and also allow for some support in troubleshooting. They are not meant to be read from cover to cover, but as reference books, so a table of contents should always be included in a user manual.

A user manual equips people to solve problems without having to seek outside help. In our instant gratification driven society, it is important to provide your patrons with the tools to quickly and efficiently get the benefit they want from your product or service, and a good user manual can accomplish just that!

Instead of exclusively organizing complicated in-person training sessions, which carry high costs in both time and money, your business can utilize user manuals to help new employees work through some of the processes and systems that are part of their new jobs. This can mean that there are fewer productive hours lost during onboarding, as employees are able to learn while completing the tasks associated with their jobs thanks to the user manuals.

By providing easy access to a searchable user guide for your customers you increase their ability to access solutions in the moment and reduce the necessity to reach out for specific support from a technician or representative.

Writing and distributing user manuals is one way to help illustrate that you have done your due diligence in testing your product and how best to interact with it safely. This can go a long way in reducing any liabilities associated with creating something for the public.

Striking a balance where you are not writing as if your users are children (unless of course, they are!) but you are giving them the extra support that they need to fully understand how to use the product, in simple language, is the sweet spot for writing a user manual.

Simplicity is the name of the game when writing a user manual. Both the content and the design should adhere to this idea. Crowding your documentation with complicated illustrations, and dense blocks of text will give the sense that the user guide is too complex and inaccessible.

Visuals are actually proven to absorb visual information 7% faster than written information. In a study completed by Techsmith, it was also discovered that 67% of individuals were able to complete tasks better when provided instructions that used annotated screenshots to convey information rather than text alone.

Use a clear hierarchical structure of headings and subheadings to help the user understand what they will get out of each section of your user manual. The hierarchy you use should follow a logical flow to guide your customers easily through exactly what they need to know from beginning to end.

While you may create print copies of your user manuals, it is likely that your primary focus will be digital documentation. In a world where most people carry a smartphone on them at all times it is highly probable that your user guides will be most widely used in a digital format.

Like a table of contents helps to direct users to the appropriate place in a print document, adding a searchable component to your digital user manuals will support an enjoyable ease of use for users trying to solve a problem by accessing it.

It is not unlikely that a percentage of the individuals who need your user manual could use additional support in having it perform optimally. Accessibility requirements are law in many places, and good practice regardless of the legal obligation behind them.

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