Questions tagged [documentation]

text, usually about how to use a program.

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Should PDFs for on-screen reading be split into pages (with a "real" paper size)?

Downloadable PDFs are not a good format for on-screen reading and should be avoided, but sometimes there's nothing we can do about it. That's my case now: I have to design a PDF for on-screen reading (...
2 votes
4 answers
130 views

Using "people" vs "users" in online documentation and guidelines

There's a discussion at my office around changing the term "users" to "people" in our online documentation. Some things to know, our online documentation is used primarily by ...
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2 answers
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Can we use the breadcrumbs just like pagination where a user can go back and forth between the pages?

I want the user to be able to go back and forth on any of these pages. And this is all pdf pages, and the important thing is the hierarchy. In the sales order we are informing how much we will charge ...
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1 answer
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Do you have any recurring weekly or bi-weekly methods of sharing updates? What does that looks like?

I don't know how I can easily show ongoing research efforts to the broader team. As I am going about research and not necessarily synthesizing insights just yet, what are some good ways to signal that ...
3 votes
1 answer
60 views

Should a SaaS Documentation portal be personalized?

Should a documentation portal for a large SaaS company with multiple applications, that has all the docs for all the apps in one docs portal, switch to a curated/personalized view after a user logs in?...
4 votes
2 answers
113 views

Is there a specific name for not getting back to the same content?

So we're working on a new social media app, and when discussing with the team the analysis and insights for different social media sites, we came to this one you can see on several sites,most ...
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8 votes
2 answers
402 views

What are some creative ways to 'document' UI error messages that are manageable and maintainable for developer handover?

Background I am a designer working for a large organisation that has thousands of system error codes that are associated with system default error messages. Sometimes these system default error ...
1 vote
1 answer
51 views

How (and when) do you describe "affordance" in your Interaction Design?

Take the following example of an animation in a webstore. Say you have to write an Interaction Design document about this. I would imagine it would look something like this (VERY simplified of course)...
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1 answer
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How to represent nested If-Else blocks in documentation?

I want to document a process that has some nested If-Else decision steps. The documentation must be printable, so I don't have a lot of space for proper left indentation to represent the current level ...
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0 answers
83 views

What is the best way for documents- user guides UI (easy navigation, sharing between teams)?

We (IT team) store general user manual about software system as word doc in folders on SharePoint. Other teams across business adopted the guides to their own business processes and store them only ...
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2 votes
1 answer
90 views

Correct Terminology for windows: keyboard preferences

This is a UX/documentation issue combined with a "what the heck" windows issue; hopefully this is the right place to post it, I couldn't find a stackexchange site focused on documentation. In my ...
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2 votes
4 answers
173 views

How to document continuous usability testing for monitoring over time?

Current situation Our product is almost being released to the first group of customers after a successful pilot phase. We are regularly performing usability tests. The results are a snapshot in time ...
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35 votes
5 answers
4k views

For a command to increase something, should instructions refer to the "+" key or the "=" key?

Our software uses the =/+ and -/_ keys for opposite tasks. For example, increasing or decreasing a value, or zooming in or out. No modifier keys are used. Here is the conundrum: If we refer to it as ...
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3 answers
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When providing programming documentation to users of an office suite software, does intelligent cell merging in tables, make the info more accessible?

Examples of such merged-cell use, alongside versions of same info without merged-cell use Info using merged cells Table 1 Table 2 Same info without using merged cells Table 1 Table 2 Background ...
1 vote
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Business Software and Policies/Usage Hints

We use business software of all kind (CRM, ERP,...). There are lots of things to remember for fluent usage as keyboard shortcuts, company usage guidelines, colleagues hints, software manuals, internal ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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What frameworks exists for UI documentation?

I´m working on a style guide which I want to put on the web with info, examples etc. I know there is one API / framework called Fractal, but it does not have the look and feel I want. I see a lot of ...
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3 votes
1 answer
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How do you describe "animation effects" in your Interaction Design? And in which phase do you do this? [closed]

Question: How and when do you describe the animation effects (or rather gimmicks) in your interaction design? Description: With animation effects/gimmicks i mean stuff like, "When i hover my mouse ...
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1 answer
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Usability or Accessibility

Overview I am writing some UX Guidelines for our organization which is a Software as a Service business. Our organization relies heavily on Presentations, Marking Material, as well as our Software. I ...
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2 answers
322 views

How to describe elements/widgets properly?

We are making widgets for a corporate website and I'm trying to figure out the best way to describe them. Something like writing a documentation. There are at least 10 of these, but here is one ...
3 votes
1 answer
4k views

Annotating wireframes in sketch - how do you do it? [closed]

I've been using the notebook pro plugin for the past few months, but I'm running into tons of issues. (crashes, random inability to add new comments in larger docs, etc) What are other techniques for ...
2 votes
4 answers
141 views

Tech Writing: What to call list columns?

I'm currently re-writing some software documentation for users, and I'm stuck on how to label the columns on this page, which lists files that you've recently exported from the system, with various ...
1 vote
3 answers
381 views

Best way to present and document long screens

Currently I am using tools like Word, Powerpoint and Keynote to present concepts and specs to stakeholders. What is the best – or optimal – way to present and document long screens for stakeholders? ...
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2 votes
2 answers
185 views

Recommended patterns for help cues/hints/documentation

I've been scouring the web, but haven't been finding much with regards to different options on how to present help text and/or documentation. Obviously, there's an established pattern of just having a ...
3 votes
2 answers
128 views

How do you manage change of language/terminology in a scalable way for documentation (internal communication)

As UX Designers, we change and create words for things in the UI. Sometimes those are labels, sometimes error messages etc. I've found it very difficult to keep documentation - say confluence up to ...
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3 votes
1 answer
335 views

How often should the same hyperlink appear in a document?

I was reading a blog post today that made me question how often a hyperlink to the same content should appear in a document. In the post, nearly every reference to HDL (with the exception of one ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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What is the main difference in between a UI KIT and a Styleguide?

We are working on documenting visual design and I wanted to know: what is the main difference between a UI KIT and a styleguide? Is the difference between them that the styleguide includes design ...
1 vote
1 answer
124 views

How to design configurable scripts for non-programmers [closed]

I have a python script that allows users to parse addresses when batch-editing a table. The script allows the user to choose whether to return the house number or the street name to the field (by ...
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3 votes
3 answers
185 views

What's worse: no user guide or a useless user guide?

I work on UX team designing a massive, technically-complex, operations application. Difficult enough to comprehend that documentation will help many users, even if the UX is as intuitive and easy to ...
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2 votes
3 answers
477 views

How should I demonstrate a choice between two options in step-by-step instructions?

I'm writing a step-by-step employee guide for logging into a course management program. I need to demonstrate that one of the steps will differ depending on where the employee is logging in from. To ...
1 vote
1 answer
354 views

Documentation in one page or different pages?

What way should the documentation of a site be, all in one page or split into different pages? Since I think it is relevant, this is my project documentation right now, a library for Node.js ...
1 vote
1 answer
102 views

UX documentation

How do you refer to "the user" in your wireframe notes and specs? Do you write it as: "I start typing", or "the user starts typing"? What format do you use? Also, does anybody have any examples from ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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User experience and Agile Modeling

I have a question regarding architect modeling and how an UX designer can use them to deliver better documentation to the developers/software architects. Has anyone used a component diagram to ...
1 vote
1 answer
269 views

User manual with screenshots for mobile devices?

I'm thinking of a user manual, which documents a web-site-based application. The manual should introduce and explain the functionality (the various pages) of the application. The purpose of the ...
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1 vote
1 answer
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Screen shot of all google.com oneboxes

Can anyone provide the URL for an illustration of an exhaustive set of google.com oneboxes? Background: Below is a SERP screen shot highlighting google.com's way of grouping content types, which some ...
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1 vote
3 answers
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What should I call these navigation buttons?

See image below. These buttons used in an application to move between first, last, next, and previous records. I've seen them referred to as "VCR buttons". As that technology becomes less common (and ...
0 votes
1 answer
349 views

Customer Journey testing [closed]

I'm new inside UX/CX design field, and I would like to know more info about customer journey mapping. I know that this process is to map the current customer journey also emotional mapping to find ...
3 votes
1 answer
58 views

What are best practices for managing terminology changes in legacy software?

In a big redesign, there can be terminology changes and mapping to backend entities that needs to happen. What are the best practices for doing this? Also, for making documentation consistently ...
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4 votes
2 answers
149 views

What's the best way to refer to a context menu in documentation?

It used to be that you could tell a user (in documentation or in onscreen prompts) to, let's say, "Click a button, or right-click to display a menu." Nowadays, there are multiple ways to display a ...
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3 votes
2 answers
534 views

User Manual vs How-to guide?

I am working on specifying documentation for a soon to be released SaaS tool. Some parts of it are very technical and will require an in-depth explanation of how it works. Conceptually I was ...
6 votes
4 answers
460 views

Should an API documentation include When-to-use and when-not-to-use list?

The target user base for the problem described below is one of the most neglected and underrated one - Programmers/Developers/Coders. Consider, for example, this java doc which is explaining about ...
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2 votes
2 answers
553 views

What is the best way to document/describe a completely new product?

Describing a new feature, optimization, or new section of an existing app for engineering and the product team is fairly solvable. You can build on a specific existing point of reference and user ...
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2 votes
5 answers
1k views

How to write a perfect style guide [duplicate]

I'm developing a sort of a theme with a set of pre build components with is such as, styled data tables, input forms and etc... This is developed for internal usage in my company and I would like to ...
1 vote
3 answers
434 views

UX/UI Documentation

In the next few weeks I'll be working on a project that teaches students how to program and design apps for Android Wear, tablets, and TVs. I'll be there as a UI and UX consultant, and will have about ...
2 votes
1 answer
70 views

Is it okay to have a random "notes" section in your documentation?

I started collecting from users of my project about the problems they face while using it and decided to put it into the documentation. Since right now it's just a single "README" document, I put it ...
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2 votes
2 answers
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Is using a wireframe instead of a screenshot acceptable in technical work?

When putting screenshots of an application in technical work (such as a manual for end users), most screenshots will require editing to be usable. Extraneous UI elements may need removed, spacing may ...
0 votes
1 answer
80 views

What help systems (KB's) are mostly used in bigger companies? [closed]

I know the first answer would normally be NO help system at all. make your UI as intuitive as possible. second would probably be about studies showing no one reading help files and the better option ...
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4 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to best spec animations/transitions for engineering team handoff

I have an app prototype built using Pixate which demonstrates the entire flow of the app I am working on. There are transitions between views and animations for certain elements on the page. I have ...
4 votes
2 answers
878 views

Why are there not more interactive design / style guides out there? Aren't they more user friendly?

It seems like only the larger companies working on development and design frameworks are producing interactive documents that provide information about the visual and interactive design components/...
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6 votes
4 answers
206 views

Documenting Rationale

I'm a UX architect working in house. In a nutshell wireframes are provided for our projects. We use JIRA as a way of tracking projects and confluence to document and archive them. Emails seem to be a ...
1 vote
2 answers
252 views

What would you call a group that contained UX, training and documentation?

What would you call a group within an organization that contained UX responsibilities as well as training and documentation? Marketing and product groups already exist outside of this entity... trying ...