How To User Guides

Want to let your team know how to use or apply something? Create a User Guide!

What is a user guide & who is responsible?

User guides are guides for people working with something, people who apply or use a certain thing. They have the form of an entry in this wiki, and are created by the respective circle. If you have a topic that needs explanation to your team members because they should act upon it autonomously, you might want to think of creating a user guide.

User guides vs. Field guides

While field guides are for internal use within a circle, so to say about your backend processes & structures, how & why you organize,

user guides are for the international team to support them in their work, given the case they have some commitments that are related to your circle in a means of using them. Field guides are created in g-docs, based on a template & maintained from the circle itself. They are not directly centralized & accessible for the team. User guides are maintained in this user guide wiki, the process is outlined in here 👍👍👍👍)

HOW to set up a user guide?

• Have look around & get inspired by how others set up a user guide

• Create a draft on a g-doc & get some advice from your teammates

• Hand in the user guide to the user guide coordinator (see below)

• The user guide wiki will be updated for you :)

HOW to maintain a user guide?

You can hand in updates whenever necessary. The coordinator will reach out once a year for you to review your entry & propose updates if necessary.

Helpful elements for your user guide:

• Explanations are key in user guides, they can take different forms to elaborate on the ‘why’ behind choices & things. Sometimes, bullet points are enough, other times, a written text can be more helpful.

• Processes: Describe or visualize a process if it makes sense in your case.

• Important documents & drive folders

• FAQ & Glossaries: Some points might need more detail & questions might pop up over time. Adding a glossary or a FAQ from the beginning is helpful to keep the document living.

• Stories & Visual elements, eg. videos, pictures, flow charts, presentations, .. Get creative with how you present your content. Make it accessible for the users and take them on a journey through the different steps you mention. This way, you’re also practicing your narrative skills :)

Further considerations when writing:

• Use light language so that people can relate and pick it up

• A user guide should be self-explanatory and always up to date

• Use visualisations to explain what you are talking about

• As short as possible, as detailed as necessary

• Use the different headings to help people navigate the document

FAQ

Can externals access user guides?

User guides in general have been created for an internal audience: the oikos team! That doesn't mean we can never share any user guide with the outside world if it is relevant. In general, it is worth to consider if externals will be able to connect to the information shared, if there is enough context given. A handy solution is to use the base of our team user guide (by using the gdoc version or download the pdf version here in the wiki) and add whatever is needed for the external audience.

Help & Support:

Contact Sophie :)