Best practices for creating guides

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This article provides information about best practices for creating guides. 

Note: This article is relevant for Visual Design Studio and Adopt Studio.

  • Understand user behavior. Determine the type of behavior you're looking to drive from your users. Are you looking to direct them to a new feature, or walk them through a confusing process?
  • Define your audience. Who are you looking to target with your guides? Identify your target, define the segment, and target your guides toward that audience.
  • Clean and optimized styling. Consistency in guide development is incredibly important as you begin to push out guides. Consider using Guide Templates and Global CSS Styling to ensure a consistent image within your guides.
  • Level of interruption. Decide the level of interruption you’d like to create with your guide. The type of guide, the way it displays, and the limits, such as click restrictions, all define the level of interruption you're creating for the visitor.
  • Short and effective messaging. Thorough but succinct messaging keeps your users informed, but still engaged. Don’t use 10 steps, when 5 steps are just as effective.
  • Page location and targeting. Be aware of the page location and element targeting for the guide. Page location helps determine which page or pages you want the guide to display on. Element targeting allows you to control the display of guides based on elements within your product.

    Note: Element targeting is required for tooltip guides and optional for all other guide types.

  • Smart walkthrough transition. When transitioning through walkthroughs, be aware of how you want to transition users through the process. Using buttons within a walkthrough guide versus transitioning based on element click is important in ensuring users flow through a guide.
  • Give users the power. Activating the Resource Center for your guides gives users the option to activate and walk through guides when convenient for them.
  • Gather feedback. Don’t delay initiating polls within your guides. Product feedback can provide great insight on where to start your focus in the product improvement process.
  • Practice makes perfect. Setting up a staging server is required for testing. This allows you to initially test guides in your development environment, as well as exclude data associated with this guide.
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