I’ve written a ton of FAQs in my day. I think they can be useful in many situations. The problem is, most of this content is created BEFORE the experience goes live. So they aren’t “Frequently Asked Questions>” No, they’re “Answers to Questions We Expect Will Be Frequently Asked But Haven’t Been Yet.” And that’s a recipe for a poor Help experience. If the sites and apps that use FAQs would actively iterate them to reflect the REAL user problems and questions they encounter most often (while eliminating the FAQs that no one really asks), FAQs would be a more useful tool.
Rich Malley
I’ve written a ton of FAQs in my day. I think they can be useful in many situations. The problem is, most of this content is created BEFORE the experience goes live. So they aren’t “Frequently Asked Questions>” No, they’re “Answers to Questions We Expect Will Be Frequently Asked But Haven’t Been Yet.” And that’s a recipe for a poor Help experience. If the sites and apps that use FAQs would actively iterate them to reflect the REAL user problems and questions they encounter most often (while eliminating the FAQs that no one really asks), FAQs would be a more useful tool.