{"id":10207,"date":"2021-10-22T20:44:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T20:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/software-user-guide\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T16:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T16:32:06","slug":"software-user-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/software-user-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write the Perfect Software User Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is a user guide and why is it important?<\/h2>\n

If you’ve ever been through the millennial rite of passage that is building furniture from Ikea, you will have seen a user guide before.<\/p>\n

\"ikea<\/picture>
Source: IKEA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Manuals such as these are used in almost every industry to assist users in getting the most out of products. And the SaaS world is no exception to this rule.<\/p>\n

User guides can be physical, like the leaflet in the picture above, but in the world of software<\/a>, they’re much more likely to be digital.<\/p>\n

Enter the knowledge base<\/h3>\n

Many SaaS businesses have started creating knowledge bases<\/strong> on their websites.<\/p>\n

A knowledge base is a distinct part of your company’s website (often a subdomain) which houses content showing customers how to use your app.<\/p>\n

Userpilot has a knowledge base of its own<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"userpilot<\/picture><\/figure>\n

And we’ve previously written<\/a> about how you can use a help center widget to embed your knowledge base within your product itself, making it even more accessible to your customers.<\/p>\n

Here’s what this looks like:<\/p>\n

\"resource<\/picture>
Source: Postfity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you’re thinking “this sounds like a lot of work to put together,” you’d be correct. So…<\/p>\n

Why bother?<\/h3>\n

There are 4 good reasons to spend time and money building online manuals like this for your customers:<\/p>\n

Self-sufficiency<\/h4>\n

Firstly, there is value in allowing users to answer their own questions in a self-sufficient manner.<\/p>\n

70% of customers<\/a> prefer to look up answers on a company’s website than send an email or give customer service a call.<\/p>\n

Less tangibly, there’s also the sense of accomplishment you can give your users when they solve their problems for themselves.<\/p>\n

Fewer support costs<\/h4>\n

If more of your users are able to solve their own product issues of their own accord, that means that fewer queries will reach your customer support team.<\/p>\n

As a result, you won’t need to employ so many support agents to answer the phone, emails, or online chat.<\/p>\n

If all those agents are salaried, that adds up to a lot of savings over time.<\/p>\n

Contextual help<\/h4>\n

If you really know what you’re doing, you can set up your help widget <\/a>in such a way that it will automatically display the 2-3 knowledge base articles that are most likely to benefit users according to which part of your app they’re on.<\/p>\n

From your customer’s perspective, that makes you look like a mind-reading Jedi, able to anticipate their questions even before they themselves can.<\/p>\n

Less churn<\/h4>\n

If you put the previous 3 factors together, the bottom line is that companies that invest in user documentation experience less churn <\/a>over time.<\/p>\n

And you’d be surprised how much of a problem churn is for SaaS businesses, even as early as Day 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What you should include in your user manual?<\/h2>\n

There’s no such thing as a universal manual that will work for all businesses.<\/p>\n

But if I had to recommend a list of ingredients to maximize the odds of your manual providing value to the end-user, here’s what I’d include:<\/p>\n

Write simply and concisely<\/h3>\n

Few things are more annoying than verbose technical writers.<\/p>\n

\"bad<\/picture><\/figure>\n

Remove all the fluff from your manual to make it as user-friendly as possible. Every word should say something of value.<\/p>\n

No one wants to read a long, boring description<\/a> of your product’s features that reads like a college essay, so focus instead on the benefits it provides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Assume that your customer is a novice to your field and pitch your level of writing accordingly. Avoid industry jargon.<\/p>\n

Get the visuals right<\/h3>\n

The saying “a picture speaks a thousand words” comes to mind here.<\/p>\n

You should use images, screenshots, videos, and even gifs to break up the wall of text whenever you can.<\/p>\n

If you need to include a screenshot of your product, consider showing a simplified user interface that greys out the less relevant parts of your app, like this:<\/p>\n

\"simplified<\/picture><\/figure>\n

That way, you make it as easy as possible for the reader to focus on what you’re drawing their attention to.<\/p>\n

Any fonts that you use should be consistent with both the rest of your knowledge base and indeed your brand’s overall style sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A logical structure<\/h3>\n

When you create user guides, you should structure them in such a way that they are as easy to read (and scan) as possible.<\/p>\n

A table of contents is essential for each guide or article.<\/p>\n

If you have multiple guides, consider segmenting them<\/a> by topic area, so the reader doesn’t have to scratch around in the “API integrations” guide to figure out how to install your Chrome extension.<\/p>\n

On the macro-level, it makes sense to present topics for new customers front and center.<\/p>\n

For best results, your user manual should be searchable, as should your knowledge base as a whole.<\/p>\n

Go the extra mile<\/h3>\n

If you follow the above 3 pointers, your user guides will be better than those of 90% of other SaaS companies.<\/p>\n

If you want to really “wow” your audience:<\/p>\n