How do you evaluate your documentation?

2 Review your content

The next step is to review your content and check its accuracy, completeness, clarity, and consistency. You want to make sure that your content is up-to-date, relevant, and correct, and that it covers all the essential aspects of your software, such as its features, functions, specifications, dependencies, limitations, and instructions. You also want to make sure that your content is easy to understand, follow, and use, and that it uses a consistent style, tone, format, and terminology throughout. You can use various tools and techniques to review your content, such as peer reviews, proofreading, testing, spell checking, grammar checking, and readability analysis.

3 Evaluate your structure

The third step is to evaluate your structure and check its organization, navigation, and usability. You want to make sure that your structure is logical, coherent, and intuitive, and that it helps your readers and users to find, access, and consume the information they need quickly and efficiently. You also want to make sure that your structure is flexible, scalable, and adaptable, and that it can accommodate changes and updates in your software and documentation without compromising its quality and usability. You can use various methods and criteria to evaluate your structure, such as user feedback, user testing, user analytics, content audits, content mapping, and content modeling.

4 Assess your format

The fourth step is to assess your format and check its presentation, design, and accessibility. You want to make sure that your format is attractive, professional, and consistent, and that it enhances the readability and comprehension of your content. You also want to make sure that your format is compatible, responsive, and accessible, and that it works well across different devices, platforms, browsers, and screen sizes. You can use various standards and guidelines to assess your format, such as HTML, CSS, XML, Markdown, PDF, WCAG, and ARIA.

6 Improve your documentation

The final step is to improve your documentation based on the evaluation results and feedback. You want to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your documentation, and prioritize the areas and aspects that need improvement. You also want to implement the changes and updates in your documentation, and test and verify their effectiveness and quality. You can use various tools and resources to improve your documentation, such as style guides, templates, checklists, best practices, examples, and tutorials.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?