Technical Writing Services

Product Documentation Or Dashboard Guide

User manual, as we say it colloquially, is an underrated but extremely useful aspect of your product. Many people have the assumption that user manuals or Product Description are not used by the users at all. However, when we surveyed our readers we found something interesting. Although they do not read the product guide from A to Z, they have at least once opened the user manuals when they got stuck while using the product. A product documentation can neutralise the frustration of your customers. Happy customers means greater brand loyalty.

Why Product Guide/ Product Documentation Matters

Congratulations all the hard work of your sales team, the digital marketers and of yours have come to fruition. The customer has bought the product. Now, you have another challenge in front of you – making sure that the product comes up to the expectation of the new customer. And the user manual of the product has an immensely important role in this.

• Not all your customers will be savvy. Every now and then while using your product, they might find some function hard to use. So they would need documentation to consult with.
• Product documentation prevents frustration. The trouble shooter section of the documentation will help the customer understand what she should do in case of any malfunction.
• Documentation can be an alternative to customer support centres. If your product comes with detailed documentation, the customers might not need to call the support executives frequently. That way you can save a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on setting up large support centres.
• Above all, a well made documentation shows that the brand cares for the customers.
  
  
  

Writing An Effective User Manual / Product Documentation

A product documentation is an entirely different ball game. First of all, the content writing expert must keep in mind that the product documentation has a good chance of being printed on paper – meaning it will exist both in digital as well as printed forms.

1. Don’t Show Your Copywriting Skills While Writing Documentation

   The person who is reading the user manual has already purchased your product. So no need to impress him with those SEO copywriting tactics. Now is the time to make sure that he can use the product without much fumbling. At Dimensions, our best content writers focus on just that while writing a product documentation.
   
   
   

2. Start From The Beginning

   A user manual must take into account all the functionalities of a product. No step should be jumped. For example, while writing documentation for a mobile phone, the writer must include even the process of switching on the phone. Each technical content writer here at our company starts from the basics and then goes on to explain the advanced functionalities.
   
   
   

3. Focus On The ‘How’ Aspect More

   The main aim of a documentation is to make people understand how to use the product. So while explaining how to take clear photos at night, explain how to increase the ISO and Exposure. But don’t spend too much time on explaining what ISO or Exposure are. At Dimensions our technical content writers focus more on ‘how to’ and less on ‘what is’ while writing user manuals.
   
   
   

4. Generously Use Subheadings, Bullets, Tables And Other Formatting

   There is no scope of mimicking Shakespeare or Tagore in the user manual. It’s not literature. People will be expecting to get answers to their queries quickly. Our article writers use various formatting methods like colour-coding, tweaking font size, using subheadings and bullets etc to help your customers skim through relevant information quickly.
   
   
   

5. Each Section of The Documentation Should Be Independent

   Make all the sections of the documentation independent of each other. A customer will not be reading the whole of the user manual at one go. For example suppose somebody has bought a smartphone. Someday he might be having trouble taking out the SIM tray. Some other day, he might be having trouble setting the alarm. To solve these two different issues, he will turn the pages of the user manual and read only the sections that talk about them. The relevant section must resolve the particular issue that it talks about without redirecting the customer to some other section.
   
   
   

6. Create A Thorough Table of Contents
   

   As said earlier, the customer will turn the pages of the user manual only to solve particular issues – he won’t be reading the whole documentation. Make sure he doesn’t have to hunt for the resolution of the issue that he is facing. He should be able to quickly locate the topic that he wants to read on. Our technical content writers, thus, create a detailed table of contents after they finish writing the documentation.

Product Documentation is an intimate way for a brand to stay close to its customers. It should be written in such a way as if the customer has a friend beside her who is explaining to her how to use the product.