From product chaos to clarity – the importance of correct information
Our information architects Johan Elisson and Tobias Linder give us a sneak peek into product configurations in technical information: An area that has been tricky until now and is playing an increasingly important role.
AIMING TO LIFT THE BURDEN FROM THE USERS
Physical manuals are a waste of resources for everyone involved:
• Product updates quickly render manuals obsolete, meaning they need to be discarded and replaced.
• Users need to spend time searching for their language and specific product to find the right information. If you have made upgrades or optional features available, you need to keep track of them yourself to know which information in the manual applies to your product.
Digital product information brings completely new possibilities – but also an expectation of more customised information.
INFORMATION THAT REFLECTS THE PRODUCT TODAY
Technical information that reflects what a product looked like when it was manufactured (often referred to as ‘as-built’ for physical products) is no longer sufficient - the information needs to reflect what the product consists of today (as-maintained). This means considering replaced components, options and upgrades. Complex products no longer consist solely of hardware, but also software, so product information needs to reflect this as well.
It quickly gets complex, as even two products of the same model may not be identical. If they were manufactured in different factories, they may have slight variations, such as the size of screw holes if the two factories use similar but not identical screws. If such a screw needs to be replaced, you need information about the type of screw used in the specific product.
HAVE BEEN MISSING TOOLS
This can be solved, but it can be difficult to do so in a resource-efficient manner. The information becomes difficult to maintain because it needs to be tagged more and more granularly to reflect all the product variants that may exist on the market.
The tools available today often do not provide full flexibility or clarity: The number of tags that can be assigned to a topic in a CCMS may be limited. In case the number of tags is unlimited, it becomes difficult to get an overview. The most important thing is for users to be able to filter out the information that is relevant. This puts demands on the CDP that distributes the information, and unfortunately it often fails.
The million-dollar question:
How can you display only what is relevant right now, without spending unreasonable amounts of resources on creating and maintaining the information?
DOING IT RIGHT FROM THE START
Aleido is now developing a platform that takes this complexity into account from the start, rather than dealing with it retrospectively and ‘from the side’ as in today's tools.
The aim is to tag content in a smart way so that writers will not have to go back and add more tags in hindsight.
FUTURE-PROOFING THE TAGGING
Companies need a process for deciding what information to include and what to leave out.
The question also arises as to what the manufacturer should be responsible for in its product information. If a user has an authorised workshop install a tow bar on their car, it would be reasonable for the car's user manual to also include information about the tow bar going forward. If a tow bar is welded on by ‘Tom's workshop’, it is not as clear if it should be included in the manual automatically.
But should consumers be able to add that they have added certain features in order to include that information? What information can be helpful and what can pose a safety risk?
It becomes even more complex when information about one feature depends on other features: A reading lamp in a car may have different locations depending on whether the car has a sunroof or not. If the lamp is also either LED or conventional, there are many different variants of the same type of information for a technical writer to keep track of: with the CCMS available today, it is cumbersome to handle such circumstances.
THE RIGHT LEVEL VARIES
We encourage reuse so that information on a particular topic can be reused instead of recreated repeatedly for different products and information deliverables. There is a sweet spot for every company in terms of how detailed or aggregated information its users need. This depends, among other things, to which extent the company creates customer-specific products or sells the same model to everyone. In most cases, a middle ground is likely to be most appropriate: Manuals for completely individual products are rarely needed, and information at the variant level may be entirely sufficient.
Regardless of which level is right for a particular company, it should be both possible and easy for those working in Aleido's platform to create and distribute information for a product-specific digital manual, should it be needed. And as a user, you should be able to easily access your product-specific information, such as what the product looks like right now.
Is it time to review how your technical information and product configurations are linked? Get in touch and we'll start a dialogue.
Contact
Interested in our services?
Lars Löfgren
Business development manager
Aftermarket information
+46 (0)73 682 77 81
- at https://form.apsis.one/MtWCH0smSSr
Andrew McCabe
Country Manager UK
Aleido UK
+44 (0) 1926 642935
- at https://form.apsis.one/GqQ2iJCnY3