Thorough, written documentation is available in the application

Description

Availability of thorough, written documentation within the application. This refers to detailed, accessible, and easy-to-understand written resources that explain the features, functionality, and usage of the software. Such materials empower users to understand, interact, and troubleshoot the system more efficiently, augmenting its utility and user experience.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An international logistics company uses forecasting software to aggregate forecast data across departments. As the software is new to the organization, several users struggle to understand its features or resolve minor issues they encounter while using the system.

Solution: Through comprehensive, written documentation provided within the system, users can navigate on-demand tutorials, guides, or FAQs. For example, if the user encounters an issue when applying a predictive method to the forecast, they can refer to the 'Predictive Methods' section in the user manual, follow the steps formulated therein, and troubleshoot the problem themselves.

Considerations

The best written documentation is contextual, meaning that it shows documentation based on where you are in the application. For example, if you're building out a financial report, the documentation should route you to a Report Writing set of instructions.

Some documentation takes it a step further, adding information inside the application as pop-ups if the user needs it. That can be very helpful when just getting used to a new system.

In the end, videos are best and ideally are shown as a complement to written documentation.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Availability: What kind of written documentation is available within the software and where is it located?
• Style of Documentation: Is the documentation user-friendly and easily digestible? Is it full of jargon?
• Updates: How frequently is the documentation updated following software upgrades or feature rollouts?
• Videos: How much of the documentation is shown as a recorded demo, or is it mostly written?