Don’t let your readers guess what’s in a topic. Create headings that clearly communicate:
▪the contents of a topic ▪the topic’s information type (concept, task, or reference) ▪if there are different user groups, or if the topic is relevant only for advanced users: the audience of the topic It’s a good idea to learn from marketing: Use a heading that attracts the attention of readers. However, don’t promise anything that the topic cannot deliver.
If users feel that a topic answers just what they thought it would answer, you’ve created a positive user experience.
If users feel that a topic doesn’t answer what they thought it would answer, they will conclude that the whole document is useless and stop reading. Many of them will never, ever come back. This is the worst thing that can happen!
Be aware of the fact that readers don’t always see a heading in its hierarchical context. For example, when you browse the table of contents in a book and there’s a main heading “Printing” and the subheadings “Overview” and “Reports,” it’s obvious that the Overview topic is about printing and that the Reports topic is about printing reports. However, when users find the same topics via a link or via search in online help, the heading “Overview” appears isolated and practically says nothing at all. Users don’t have any clue then that it’s an overview about printing. With the Reports topic, the problem is very similar: Is it about reports in general? About designing reports? About creating reports? About sending reports by email? Headings that are more meaningful are “Printing Overview” and “Printing Reports.” It’s perfectly OK to repeat the major heading “Printing” within the headings of the subordinate topics.
In addition, in online help, topic titles are typically listed as the results of full-text search. If you have multiple topics with an identical title such as “Overview,” users have no clue which “Overview” to choose.
Here are some typical examples of popular but meaningless and often ambiguous headings that you should definitely avoid:
▪Overview ▪General Information ▪Guidelines ▪Basics ▪Procedures ▪Results ▪Reference ▪Additional Information ▪Miscellaneous Use headings that are more descriptive, such as “Configuration Overview” instead of “Overview,” or “Safety Guidelines” instead of “Guidelines.”
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