Organizing Web application online help

Organizing help content is a very important part in technical writing. I always find it’s quite challenging and always in the process of making the organization more efficient. These are the main methods that I am using to organize the help content:

·    Organizing by screen: List out all the tasks and topics that relate to each main screen. This organization might help users stuck on a particular screen. We also provide tooltips and FAQ in the major screens to help users to find information faster.

·    Organizing by steps: When creating an event, there are several steps in the wizard. I make each step as a category, and group all the related tasks and topics together under the step, and follow the sequence of the steps.

·    Organizing by related information: Related information contains a series of logically related links placed at the end or along the side of each topic. This method provides navigation directly within the topic, where users often spend the most time.

Other methods that I also might be considering when organizing help content are:

·    Organizing by audience: Audience may be identified by their roles. By doing this, you can present the topics most relevant to that audience.

·    Organizing by skill level: Skill level can be divided into beginning and advanced tasks. Users new to the system can see a list of topics appropriate to beginners, while advanced users can see the more difficult topics.

·    Organizing by format: Format can be grouped by videos, PDF, online help, or other formats. This helps users looking for help material based on their leaning preferences.