[Sigia-l] Question about FAQs

[Karl Fast]

What follows is all personal opinion based experience as a user, not
any empirical or observational experience as a designer. Caveat
emptor. 

I have found two types of FAQs useful:

1. The Brief FAQ

   It's short. I can quickly skim it. It gives me a sense of common
   issues that I might run into. It's like a little test. If I pass,
   if I understand the FAQ, then I figure I'm doing real well.

2. The Detailed FAQ

   I love a detailed FAQ that summarizes a lot *more* information. I
   dislike FAQs that replace the real documentation. I may never need
   the real documentation, but I want to know it's there.  

   My favorite example is the FAQ for the VIM text editor. The
   FAQ is huge, but the documentation is huger (rhymes with luger?)

   http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/vimfaq2html3.pl


There are at least three things to keep in mind when designing a FAQ:

1. The FAQ is not a replacement for the real documentation.

   It's merely an alternate representation of selected information.
   The VIM documentation is enormous. The FAQ brings out the
   important bits and presents it in a different, more useful way,
   considering the task context of the user.  

2. The FAQ should answer real questions, not PR questions. This
   advice comes from the Cluetrain (book, pg. 71):

   "There are two kinds of FAQs, I realized recently: 1) those that
   frame questions the company wants you to ask. Q: So how good ARE
   your products anyway? A: Very very VERY good!!!), and 2) those
   that acknowledge actual problems and provide solutions. The (1)
   variety is bulls**t PR, while (2) is truly useful."

3. Quick answers are the essence of a FAQ, thus design is critical.

   I loath FAQs which separate each answer into a separate page. You
   spend all your time pogosticking between the index and each
   individual entry. Such a design defeats the purpose of a FAQ:
   quick answers to common questions.

   For a brief FAQ, one big page is much better. People will scroll.

   For a detailed FAQ you can, maybe, divide the FAQ into
   chapter-like sections and create one page for each chapter. But
   hey, the VIM FAQ dumps it all on one page.


All IMHO, but hopefully of some help.


--karl