Frequently Asked Questions UX
This article is an upcoming part of?Smart Interface Design Patterns??? and will be a part of the?UX training in September?as well. Free preview.
Barely any website can escape the curse of the?FAQ section. Even seemingly simple products eventually grow roots as the user base expands. Sadly, the?web is not a particularly friendly place, and so users have all kinds of doubts, objections, questions and concerns — and they need to be addressed.
But are FAQs a good solution to do just that? Not necessarily. Let’s explore some of the issues that FAQs have, and how to actually help customers find what they need. You can find more details on that in the?usability chapters in the video library.
Usability Pitfalls With FAQs
We’ve learned to rely upon dedicated FAQ sections over the years, and users seem to understand the concept very well. However, on an FAQ page they typically?scan questions for a specific keyword, or use in-browser search to find what might be relevant for them.
The?questions format, however, doesn’t aid in quick navigation to the answer. And with accordions, the answers usually aren’t accessible without opening each accordion.
This reveals some?significant usability issues:
In general, just like PDFs, FAQs are examples of?organization-centric form of navigation?and content. Since many customers don’t know how the organization is structured and how it works, they often experience issues finding an answer in a myriad of?poorly organized questions.
The Best FAQ Isn’t Even There
Typically FAQs emerge because users can't easily find a particular piece of information on the site, and keep sending similar questions to the service desk — after all, these questions are “frequently asked”.
However, this isn't really an indicator that an FAQ section is needed, but rather that?IA, navigation and search aren't working very well. Before setting up an FAQ page, we can try to find a way to show answers where users actually expect to find them.
In the eCommerce example above, we leave customers with plenty of unanswered questions. We need to?highlight all the details?about taxes and fees, delivery times, shipping costs, returns policy and payment options — as prominently as possible. But we don’t really need an FAQ for that — we could show them right away (pictured below ↓).
We might need to do a bit more work. We could break down the pieces of content and publish relevant content where people naturally look for it. We also might need to?iterate on IA, navigation design, labels and layout with?top tasks?and?tree testing.
领英推荐
And once it all set in motion, we might set up?help hubs, or if absolutely necessary, an FAQ page as a temporary solution.
A Well-Designed FAQ
But what if we do need an FAQ after all? Of course we need to?group questions by topics, and probably design them as accordions. Displaying all answers as is would work with in-browser search, but it might make the page too lengthy to be usable.
Here are some of the?useful features of FAQ pages?that you might want to consider:
Wrapping Up
FAQs are difficult to navigate and maintain, but they do gather critical information in one single place, and hence can be helpful. But we need to?measure just how helpful they are.
Measure how much traffic your FAQ page has and how often people mark answers as helpful. Establish a regular maintenance review for the content of the page as it might be something that users heavily rely on.
You might not need an FAQ page after all. Perhaps you could break down the answers to each question within the interface. Or perhaps you could create a?help hub, or a?full support guide?with how-to articles, screenshots and videos, dedicated Q&A blog posts and a decent autocomplete. This might be much more efficient than a never-ending list of nested FAQ sections.
Coming Up:?Interface Design Live UX Training?(Sep 8–Oct 6)
Roll up your sleeves and boost your UX skills! We’ll explore usability pitfalls, design process, design KPIs and design patterns in the?upcoming live UX training in September this year. With 8 live sessions, real-life UX challenges,?personal 1:1?feedback?and UX certification for all your hard work! Ah, you can get?just a video library, too. Free preview.
I'd be absolutely delighted to welcome you there. And it's not quite for you, perhaps you could recommend the course and training to your friends and colleagues? Thank you so much ?? for your kind and ongoing support, everyone —?and I can't wait to see you soon! ????
— Vitaly
Visual Designer | Creating Something That Truly Connects
1 年Agree! Shifting from FAQs to dynamic help hubs enhances user experience by providing context-specific information, reducing redundancy, and ensuring timely updates based on evolving user needs.
E-Commerce Manager @ SPARQ bei Rotk?ppchen-Mumm
1 年Maximilian Czerniak
Digital Marketing Coordinator en Talana | Publicista | Diplomado Inteligencia Digital de Marketing en USACH | Emprendedor | Saas B2B
1 年Ignacio Andres Fernández Tobar Rafaella Espildora
Semi-Retired
1 年Great insights! Your perspective on rethinking FAQs in UX design is truly thought-provoking. I agree that answering users' questions in context can create a more intuitive and user-friendly experience. Thanks for sharing your expertise and prompting us to question established practices.
AI Visionary | Building Next-Gen AI Chatbots & Voice Agents to Revolutionize CX & Drive Business Growth | Founder: Elysium AI & AuroraVoice AI ??
1 年Replace FAQ with human-like chatbots programmed with your business data on your website, built by me???? Streamline your productivity and reduce inquiries!