Език: English
Your documentation can be perfectly organised and still fail your users.
When we audited our documentation architecture, we discovered a significant gap between how our organisation structured information and how users actually looked for answers. Topics were hard to discover, user journeys crossed boundaries our architecture did not reflect, and metadata that looked thorough on paper did little to help users in practice.
This talk explores what we uncovered and how it changed the way we think about content architecture: not as a way to organise content, but as a way to help user experience with our product.
Many technical writers and information architects evaluate docs using surface-level health metrics. This case-study session explores what happens when you shift focus to user mental models and cross-functional user journeys.
What the audit revealed
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Discoverability gaps: Content that exists but remains hidden behind internal product terminology.
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Siloed journeys: User workflows that break across unacknowledged internal team ownership boundaries.
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Invisible utility: Thorough metadata that satisfies internal schemas but fails to aid a user troubleshooting in real time.
Key Takeaways
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Audit framework: How to design an internal doc audit focused on user mental models rather than just content completeness.
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Mapping ownership: Practical ways to map user journeys across siloed team boundaries.
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Structural empathy: How to reshape metadata and navigation to reflect real problem-solving flows.