

Ask HN: FAQ Pages useful? - kineticac

I just put together a FAQ page for http://browseology.com to help clarify the new technology.  We found that people are often times associating real-time collaboration with signups, installs, and such, so that's what they keep looking for on our page, when all they need is to click a link to get the screen sharing ability for the web.  Trying to explain how simple something is in a world that's not accustom to it is hard, so we put up a FAQ to see if it would help.<p>Do you guys think a FAQ is useful for a site?<p>Should you actually be solving the problem of why a FAQ even exists?<p>IF you need a FAQ is your product too hard to understand to begin with?<p>Let's hear your thoughts, and please review my FAQ page as well.
======
ErrantX
I _always_ look for a FAQ whenI visit a site that is not instantly obvious.

Your right fixing issues that make a FAQ a necessity are important but you can
never make it obvious for every single person. If you can describe whats going
on in a few simple paragraphs then

Often, too, I benchmark a site by the FAQ - if there are some similar sites I
intend to use and one specifically has a well written FAQ that could tip the
balance. It shows care for your users and that you understand that at some
point something wont make sense to someone :)

I have to be truthful (because you asked): your whole site is missing the
"obvious". I admit when you first linked to it I was a little confused about
what was suppsed to happen (it did come to me quite fast but was still
counter-intuitive).

On the front page you have one sentence to describe what it's about "Real time
collaborative shopping with friends". That's a great tagline but you dont
explain it any more than that. I know there is more below but there isnt a
simple "dumbed down" pararaph saying "you can browse amazon seeing the same
page as your friends, caht and discuss your choices".

Also it occurs to me that your experts thing is the "value" behind the
service: if I had a friend who was ace at cooking and were looking for a cook
book then obviously I would collaborate with him. But chances are I dont and
so your experts are what would sell the idea to me! On the main page you dont
really explain that option.

Same applies to the FAQ place: 2 paragraphs of what you are, what it entails
and stuff about the experts set at the top of the page would be perfect for
anyone a little lost from the start.

Basically: awesome idea, just needs a bit of user interface tweaking :D

Incidentally as a general point the "you can copy this URL to your friends"
message whe you start to browse stays on my screen for about 1-2secs. Not easy
to read what it says: as that is the main method of collaboration (and that is
the only place that explains it) I dunno if you want to make it stay a bit
longer :) EDIT: ignore that, I see on my other rig that it DOES stay longer
the first time. My bad :)

~~~
joepestro
Thanks for the great feedback.

You're right - Browseology isn't obvious at first glance. That's the biggest
area that we're tackling right now, since as kineticac mentioned, it's a new
concept to be browsing together without installation.

Experts are a huge part of the value prop. We're emphasizing that we're able
to connect you to people who are are interested in what you're looking for.

If you come across more - I'd love to talk about it, joe@browseology.com

------
roam
Yes, a FAQ is certainly useful. But in the case of the Browseology FAQ and
homepage, you have to take a step back and try to look at it through the eyes
of a first time visitor.

Above the first input box there's a link with the text "then join". To me that
looks like I have to create an account. Rephrase it.

But the number one problem I see is "your URL" and "the URL". Honestly, what
does "Copy & paste your URL" mean? Do I have to enter amazon.com? Do you want
the URL to my MySpace page? Even in the FAQ it isn't clear what kind of URL
you're referring to.

Or maybe I'm just a bit dense ;)

~~~
kineticac
Yeah the wording is definitely a bit weird from someone who has never seen
this before. You're not dense at all. I don't think we realized that it might
be a bit too simple and not descriptive enough the way it's worded.

"then join" is a really good point too, I feel like it's telling you to signup
as well, I didn't even realize that until now!

Thank you for the feedback.

------
petervandijck
In your case, you don't need a FAQ, you need to improve your homepage and
focus the product.

I did a quick mockup of an improved homepage:
[http://poorbuthappy.com/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05...](http://poorbuthappy.com/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05/browsology.png)

Equally important: you need to decide what the main interaction is, and focus
on that, instead of making the user choose between 3 confusing ways of
interacting on the homepage.

~~~
joepestro
Thanks for taking the time to show what you had in mind. We're very quickly
iterating over new homepage designs and will be sure to highlight the main
interaction.

------
tokenadult
_Do you guys think a FAQ is useful for a site?_

Yes, it is one of the first things I look for on a site introducing a new
technology or new service. It is a clue I use to determine how committed the
company is to user-friendliness.

------
vivekamn
FAQ is not the first thing I look for in a site. To me, in context hints and
help links are more useful. Personally, I would focus more on these. I do
check the faq, if all else fails to explain.

------
lucumo
FAQs are great. I usually read them as one of the first things on a site. They
breakdown the most important points in bite-sized chunks. They're also very
useful because they're problem oriented (questions), which makes it more
likely that you'll find what you're looking for.

------
kineticac
<http://browseology.com>

------
stonemetal
An FAQ is documentation with a specific format. You don't have to wait for any
questions to be asked before starting your FAQ, though it should highlight any
questions you get asked regularly.

