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Subject:Re: Knowledge Bases -- What are they, really? From:Sarah Kiniry <sarah -dot- kiniry -at- whmcs -dot- com> To:Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com> Date:Mon, 2 Nov 2020 08:30:40 -0600
A little something re: the âTele Tubbyâ design look:
The world of apps and app-like web design has conditioned a lot of users to see that kind of mobile-centric design as synonymous with modern, and therefore synonymous with being up-to-date and accurate.
Old school designs may be more functional in some ways, but, as a user, if something has lots of older-looking elements, scrolling sidebars, etc., Iâm more likely to seek a third-party source because the design tells me âthis hasnât been updated since 2002.â What we produce is only worth it if people look at it, have confidence in the information, and anticipate a good experience with it, regardless of whether itâs actually less functional.
Sarah Kiniry
Senior Technical Writer
WHMCS
(she/her)
> On Nov 2, 2020, at 8:15 AM, Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the inputs so far...
> I'm trying to wrap up the gist of it so far. I think these points come across:
> * KBs are more ad hoc than "documentation"* KBs are more collaborative* You can layer a structure over the KB repository, but it is intrinsically flat* So a KB is a lot like a WIKI* KBs include process support -- Some can be quite elaborate platforms
> On the down side, I think a number of y'all write KBs off as something shiny, and most people request them because they don't know what they're talking about.
>
> I will admit that our current online docs use the old-fashioned 3-frame look, with a scrolling TOC, a banner, and a scrolling topic area. Sorry, but I don't see the more modern look to be more efficient. The new look does things like putting text units on shaded regions, making buttons really BIG, TOC scrolls with the page (not separately), flat/pastel look... Kind of a Tele Tubby design approach. It seems it can sacrifice efficient use of blank space, introduce distractions, and obscure the sense of 3-D "shape" of the overall body of documentation. Or that's my experience, anyway. But when I hear that we want some sort of KB for our docs, I assume that it's largely a request for a Tele Tubby look and feel on the doc set...
>
> I'm hoping that is NOT the case, and that there is something bigger and more interesting in the request for a KB approach to the docs. I was hoping for some viable uses of a KB as a substitute for so-called documentation... Something to change my mind.
>
>
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