Examples of Good and Not So Good Documentation 📝

Let's take a look at examples of good and not-so-good documentation.

❌ Not-So-Good Documentation

Here's the deal: you encounter a strange issue when helping a user out. This issue happens so often that you and your colleagues have encountered it. No documentation is the worst documentation. Imagine if it took you hours to figure out an issue to a problem and you didn't write it down. Your colleague encounters the same issue and takes hours to figure it out, then he also doesn't write it down. This can go on and on. It only takes a little bit of effort to create documentation, and it can save you so much of your time, your company's time, and your users' time.

This isn't the best example of documentation. The problem that the IT support specialist stated isn't specific, and it leaves you with more questions than answers. While it tells you what will fix an issue, it doesn't tell you how. Documentation should be straightforward and clear-cut. Your reader shouldn't have any questions when following the instructions you listed.

✅ Good Documentation

Now, this is a good example of documentation. It starts off with a very specific and clear problem. It gives you background information on what the issue is. It even gives you the exact instructions on how to fix the issue, including which settings to navigate to and where.

Remember, always write documentation that makes it easy for your reader to follow.