Open the Door: Inviting Users to Contribute to the Online Help

© 2014 Autodesk Slide 1

Open the Door: Inviting Users to Contribute to the Online HelpJosh Breault, Senior Content EngineerPatty Gale, Principal Learning Content Developer

STC New England November 19, 2014


The Challenge

P


Help content over the wall once a year

Learning ContentDevelopmentteam

Who is over here? Anyone?

P


Who is on the other side of the wall? How many are there?

Does anyone use the help?

How do they locate the help? (in-product v. search)

Can they find the information they need?

Is the information they find helpful?

Do they have questions? Suggestions? Examples to share?

Questions…

P


User Research Showed…

but users can’t find it,

so they turn tosearch and social media.

We providehigh quality content

P


User Research Showed…

and this content is of variable quality, with no way to qualify it.

Lots of user-created knowledge exists

but users can’t get to it fromour products,

P


How can we go from this…

…to this?

P


The Vision

J


Our users recognize that learning is a social activity.

They instinctively turn to one another for help.

J


So let’s make our help system the place where it can happen.

J


How will it work?

Users can access it using:• in-product

help links• an Internet

search…

We publish our help to the wiki.

J


…or navigate workflows or the contents pane.

START

1 2

3 4

5 6

END

J


Users can comment on wiki content.

Here’s a tip when using

this feature…A large office may use it as described

here, but in our small shop, we do it this

way…

We also use this tool as follows…

J


Users can add wiki content, too.

Here’s how I use this tool to maximize

productivity:

Videos

Alternative Workflow:1. Import a CAD drawing.2. Use it as an underlay.3. Sketch new lines on top.

Text

Here’s an example of what you can do with this tool.

Images

J


User content will be…

moderated harvestedand

J


Reduce duplicated content

Round-tripping Smarter Search

Behind the scenes…

J


The Process

J


So what did we do to get here?

J


In-product Search

Context-sensitive HelpCMS to Wiki

Content Engineering

J


Information Architecture

We started to shift from a book paradigm to a topic-based paradigm.

P


Content StrategyFor 3 parallel products with different audiences but largely redundant content, we moved to a single help system with unique content marked for each product.

P


Moderation1st-level moderation by a 3rd party: to identify spam, bad language, etc.

2nd-level moderation:• English: The writing team

• Other languages: internal resources, some external power users

Prep and support for moderators:• Guidelines• Training• Standard responses for common issues• Support meetings for international

moderators

Languages with low usage volumes or small user communities: Disabled commenting/editing

P


Seeding Community Content

Autodesk content User content

P


The Result

P


Who is on the other side of the wall? How many are there? Lots!

Does anyone use the help?Yes!

How do they locate the help? (in-product v. search)

50/50Can they find the information they need?

Yes and No

Is the information they find helpful?

Yes and No

Do they have questions? Suggestions? Examples to share?

Definitely yes!

Answers!

P


The landing page

P


The landing page

The result:• Users can browse Autodesk help or community content

• Users can see what has been updated/added recently

• Writers can see what users are interested in

P


Search

Filter by version

Filter by type or source

P


Search

• Users can search Autodesk help and community content• Users can filter to target the search for:

• versions• sources: forums, videos, blogs, etc.

• Users and writers can add tags to improve search results

The result:

P


A help topic

Would anyone• Comment?• Add pages? • Edit pages? • Upload videos?

P


User comments

A user added a comment

A user edited a topic

A user created a topic, added a videoP


User contributionsAnd then… User

creates a topic, asking for help

Another user responds with suggestions.

COMMUNITY happened!

A third user responds with more help.

P


Access multiple sources from one location Ask questions Get answers from us and from each other Edit our topics to make corrections or

add more details Add their own content/examples Feel listened to, included in the process Contribute to improving the quality of the help

The wiki allowed our users to…

J


Have daily conversations with our users Understand their pain points and needs Quickly respond to identified issues Update help topics on the spot Change information architecture to address needs Give users a place to connect, promote their blogs

and other related content, help each other Analyze patterns to identify troublesome content

that needs an overhaul

The wiki allowed the writing team to…

J


AnalyticsMetric FY13 Target FY12 Actual Y/Y Growth

% Target FY13 Actual Y/Y Growth

% Actual Status

Total Pageviews

8,000,000 6,638,412 20.5% 12,824,709* 93% Exceeded

Customer contributions

850 767 10.8% increase

1,117 45% Exceeded

Organic search traffic

At least 50% of traffic from organic search results

65% 0% (maintain)

73% = 9,323,061

Met

Google Search ranking

1 or 2 Google search rank for top search terms

Met 0% (maintain)

Met Met

Video pageviews

150,000 103,837 44% increase

528,417 409% Exceeded

* Represents total pageviews for all versions, all languages.

J


Lessons Learned

J


Not scalableVery successful

When we implemented our solution…

J


Overly complex Not contribution friendly

When we implemented our solution…

J


Some users thought we expected them to write all the help.

Many users didn’t understand the moderation process, and that all changes to content were vetted by Autodesk >> confusion, mistrust

When we invited users to contribute…

P


Some users thought we expected them to write all the help.

Many users didn’t understand the moderation process, and that all changes to content were vetted by Autodesk >> confusion, mistrust


P


Many users want to ask questions and get clarification.

Folks are happy to point out errors/omissions in the help.

Less than 1% of users add their own content to the help.


P


Many users want to ask questions and get clarification.

Folks are happy to point out errors/omissions in the help.

Less than 1% of users add their own content to the help.


P


Moving Forward

PP


Autodesk has developed its own online help framework.

We carried forward the best, most valuable parts of WikiHelp.

We learned from those lessons.

Now we’ve moved on

P


New help framework: landing page

Table of contents

Search

Essential skills videos

Quick links to other resources

P


New help framework: a topic User sign in

Language

Ask questions, leave comments

Feedback

Socialmedia

P


New help framework: a topicUser left comment here

User is looking for this topic Based on this question, I edited the Adding topic to include a link to the Deleting topic.

P


New help framework: searchEnter a search term

Choose source/category

P


Our help content can also be accessed through our customer knowledge portal

J


Our help content can also be accessed through our customer knowledge portal

Content from a user group classContent from supportContent from online help

J


User commenting and feedback Moderation by writers for English Targeted search Videos available, and embedded in help topics

We carried forward…

J


Ability to update help pages easily, publishing updates on a regular basis

Ability to pull content from many sources, including help, support, and forums.

Analytics Beta help

We carried forward…

J


Ability for users to add/edit help topics Moderation for other languages Wiki-based transclusion (but we still use conrefs) Topic versions and history on the platform Ability to move pages in the info architecture Legal Disclaimer >> Creative Commons

We left behind…

J


Attributions for images used in this presentationIcons from The Noun Project (www.thenounproject.com)• Monitor by useiconic.com• Ribbon by hunotika• Lost by Luis Prado• Search by Norbert Kucsera• Chat Room by Mister Pixel• Components by Q. Li• Poor Quality by Bridget Gahagan• Social profile, website, browser, page,

social by Max Miner• Add by Alexander Smith• No Spam icon by Brennan Novak

Others:• NO icon: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

• Digitizing by Peter Schwartz• Search by Gianni• Copy by Cornelius Danger• Oppression by Luis Prado • Network by Mister Pixel• Chart by Wilson Joseph• Maze by Anna Wingard• Scale by Paul Davis • Achieve by Juan Garces• Question by Anas Ramadan

J


Questions?

Josh BreaultContent [email protected]: @joshuabreaultLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabreault

Patty GaleLearning Content [email protected]: @tkrytrLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/patty-gale/1/446/977

J

Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

© 2014 Autodesk. All rights reserved.

Technology

Open the Door: Inviting Users to Contribute to the Online Help