My Roles
- Team Leader
- User Researcher
- Documentation/UX Writer
​
Timeframe
January 2021 - Present​
​
Challenge
Currently, the onboarding process for new interns is confusing, identify pain points in onboarding and make improvements to the existing documentation that will create a better experience for interns.
​
Key Takeaways
Clear and concise writing is important when designing written tutorials and writing documentation. While it is hard to keep the language simple, it is important to do so so the user is able to learn how to use the platform.
1Cademy Help & Documentation
1Cademy UX Research Team
Improving the documentation for an online learning platform
Process
Jump to:
​
Team
I am leading an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students from multiple schools.
​
​
​
Clarifying the Problem
Our first step was to clarify the problem with the current documentation. We knew users were having trouble with the onboarding process from our research on user pain points, but we needed to parse through the existing documentation to see what went wrong.
​
Our goal was to find and fix the problems within the documentation. We did this by going through the existing resources and noting where wording and clarity needed to be improved. We also noted where things should be re-organized or split up for clarity.
​
This documentation is meant to capture what users need to know about 1Cademy to start using it. It is available to all users who have an account with 1Cademy.
​
​
​
Planning New Documentation
The next step was to begin the process of re-working the existing documents. This started by listing out the articles that were necessary, then brainstormed smaller, more specific articles to supplement the more complex concepts. We regularly referenced the user needs statements made to make sure the documentation covered all the user needs.
​
The goal of this step was to create a skeleton of what was needed for the new help and documentation articles that will be implemented in 1Cademy.
​
​
​
Writing the Help Articles
Each article was first outlined to make sure the content was organized and the steps were comprehensive. When writing the articles, I found that it is important to keep readability in mind. Users do not want to read long paragraphs, so the articles are written using a combination of short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and labeled pictures. This combination offers a pleasant experience for the user if they need to find certain information. I also had to read the articles through the lens of a new user, so the articles could be as simple as possible.
​
Each article has gone through an iterative writing process, with my team making edits each time and consulting with our colleagues on the wording and clarity of steps. This iterative writing process is done in collaboration with 1Cademy's librarian team.
Obstacles
A major obstacle my team encountered was deciding how many articles were enough. It was difficult to find a balance between the length and number of articles. We did not want too many articles with smaller topics, because that would be difficult to navigate. But, we also did not want the articles to be too long and complex. After writing about 30 pages of content, my team had a long discussion about how to continue with this project, since there are so many things to learn, it would be hard for interns to get through an article.
​
Eventually, we came to the conclusion that a linear piece of text was not the best way to teach users how to use 1Cademy. In April of 2021, the team decided to create documentation on the 1Cademy platform, so the structure mimics the ideals of 1Cademy and users can learn how us 1Cademy while they search through the tutorial. Additionally, we began supplementing the tutorial and documentation text with tutorial videos and a new onboarding process for interns.
​
​
​
Making a Pivot
After deciding to move the documentation to the 1Cademy platform, the process of writing the documentation has gone much smoother. The information is structured in an understandable manner and is readily available to users right on the platform. This can reduce frustration because to get help, users can now stay in the same window and explore the documentation we have started writing. Below are a few examples of the organization of information of the documentation on the 1Cademy platform.
Next Steps
My team is still in the process of writing the documentation and help tutorials. Our next steps include testing the documentation on new users, encouraging users to utilize documentation to learn how to use 1Cademy, and working with the librarian team further to make the documentation as readable as possible.
​