A few small, simple changes spread across hundreds of articles led to a reduced cognitive load for all of our users.
Background:
At Code42 we maintained over 1,600 help articles, which were used by corporate IT experts, small business owners, and home users (a wide variety of abilities) to run their admin console and the devices on their account. Some users were native English speakers, but many were not.
Problems:
- Many titles and headlines started with gerunds (verbs that end in -ing), which can be ambiguous and unclear, sometimes with double-meanings.
- Our analytics showed us that most people searched using a “how do I…” format, with simple verbs (e.g., “how do I restore files?”).
- All titles and headlines used Every Word Capitalized, which reduces readability for everyone, including non-native and native English speakers.
Solution:
After researching best practices and validating our assumptions, I led a project to update all 1,600 help articles.
- We changed the gerunds to simple verbs, reducing ambiguity and matching the familiar search format.
- We changed the titles and headlines from Every Word Capitalized to sentence case, increasing readability.
Examples:
Before: “Creating A New Archive Key Password”
After: “Create a new archive key password”Before: “Deleting Files From Your Backup Archive”
After: “Delete files from your backup archive”Before: “Signing Out Of The Backup Agent”
After: “Sign out of the backup agent”
Result:
Improved clarity, readability, findability, and scannability for everyone — from expert to novice, for native English speakers and international users alike.
In stressful situations like data-backup console administration, every little bit helps.
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