July 2024 Meetups

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Coffee Hour with Sharon - Creative IA solutions, Get started with Gen Search: Content Tips and Feature Introduction

July 11: Coffee Hour with Sharon - Creative IA Solutions

Here are the highlights from this customer meetup:

The meetup was focused on discussing information architecture (IA) and content organization in help centers/documentation sites.

Several customers shared their approaches:

- Matt from Model N is working on integrating a large set of "knowledge center" articles into their main help center, trying to figure out the best way to organize and make this content discoverable.

- Jessica from Sylogist uses a curated list of featured/popular articles on their main landing page, which they update regularly based on seasonal needs and usage data.

- There was discussion about using faceted vs. global search, and how to structure content to support both navigation and search.

Brian and Cody from the implementation team shared some best practices:

o Understanding your audience and their needs/expectations is crucial for IA design

o The "click journey" to important content should be optimized

o Usage data and reports can inform IA decisions

- Custom classifications can be used to create flexible content organization

- Customers were interested in capabilities like using multiple classifications in guide tabs to organize content.

- Overall themes included balancing automated vs. manual curation, adapting to seasonal user needs, and making content easily discoverable through both navigation and search.

- Jessica Betterly raised a question about using the ratio of sessions to searches as a metric for gauging site performance. Jessica noted that she's seen a doubling in sessions while searches remain consistent, potentially indicating improved site organization.

- Brian discussed the importance of simplifying navigational experience, comparing simple view vs. detailed view for category pages.

- Matt Adlai-Gail emphasized the importance of minimizing scrolling and finding information quickly on a page.

Cody Sackett initiated a discussion on how organizations are reevaluating their information architecture with AI considerations:

- Rethinking content creation and storage to make it more appropriate for AI engines rather than human browsing.

- Cody emphasized the importance of quality content and proper information architecture for better AI results.

- Suggested that more content doesn't always lead to better results, especially if there's conflicting information.

- Cody highlighted the continued importance of technical writers in creating qualified, contextual content for AI tools.

- Discussion on whether AI solutions take into account the architecture of the content.

- Matt Adlai-Gail mentioned the importance of content structure (nodes, branches) in how AI results are served.

- Matt noted that in Model N, content is permissioned so customers only see modules they're using.

- Discussed the potential of AI to reconcile content from different areas (e.g., documentation and knowledge center).

July 18: Get Started with Gen Search: Content Tips and Feature Introduction

Tim Hill, Director of Product, gave a comprehensive look into our Gen Search feature (beta), showcased its capabilities, and offered easy tips on managing all your content.