Summary
Picture this: You spend weeks writing up your UX Playbook. Your Playbook covers every design and research method your team might use, when to use it, and how. It’s PERFECT. And... no one reads it. I’ve been there! I’ve led or contributed to 4 Playbooks, 2 toolkits and uncountable miscellaneous “how to” docs in my 8 years as a UX Designer and Operations Manager. In this talk, we’ll cover how to: avoid common pitfalls in documentation, discover what your team needs most, apply a design process to your documentation efforts and deliver incremental value through documentation your team will actually use.
Key Insights
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Documentation should focus on actionable and clear instructions rather than generic content.
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Easy navigation is crucial; if people can't find the information, it becomes useless.
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Cognitive overload can be minimized by breaking down information into digestible parts and using visual hierarchy.
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Regularly updating content is necessary to maintain trust and usability of the playbook.
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Empathizing with team members helps identify their actual needs and biggest frustrations with existing documentation.
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Incremental delivery of documentation ensures teams can provide feedback early, improving the final product.
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Utilizing design thinking principles can enhance the documentation creation process.
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Involving team members in content ownership fosters collaboration and increases documentation utilization.
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Tracking adoption metrics and understanding content usage is essential for refining documentation.
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Documentation should be continuously iterated upon as processes and tools evolve.
Notable Quotes
"Documentation must be actionable and reflect your organization's practices, not just generic information."
"If folks can't find the information, it doesn't matter how well it's written."
"You need to understand how people are working and what they need help with."
"Leave out generic content and focus on what your team needs."
"Imagine if team members find broken links in your playbook – it erodes trust."
"Empathize with your team to ensure the documentation meets their needs."
"Don't hide away for six months trying to build the perfect documentation."
"Deliver small complete sections to get feedback sooner rather than waiting for a finished product."
"A playbook is not a one-hit wonder; it needs ongoing maintenance and updates."
"Encourage team adoption by sharing documentation widely and pinning it in accessible channels."
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