Contextual In-App Documentation: A Smarter Way to Support Users Without Leaving the App

Do you want to reduce support tickets, improve onboarding, and reduce customer churn? What contextual in-app documentation is, how it works, and how it can help you achieve your goals?

Over 70% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good customer service. And over 80% of software users believe that better in-app guidance can help them get more value from the software.

In this article, we will explore how contextual in-app documentation saves time and helps your users get maximum value out of your product, resulting in all the aforementioned benefits.

Let’s get started!

What Is Contextual In-App Documentation?

Contextual In-App documentation combines context-sensitive help with in-app help. Before we explore it, let’s understand these combining factors separately.

Remember typing ‘How to cook’ in Google, and before you could complete your sentence, you see a bunch of ‘how to cook’ suggestions in the dropdown? That is a basic example of context-sensitive help. Then there is the F1 key that we’ve all used now and then, or the tooltip that appears when you hover your mouse over an icon on websites and apps. So, context-sensitive help is any help that users can access from wherever they are in their journey.

In-app help is a type of context-sensitive help, where assistance is provided within the application without requiring the user to leave it.

Key Components of Effective In-App Documentation

Behavior-triggered tooltips and walkthroughs

Behavior-triggered tooltips are small hints triggered by mouse hover, touch and hold, or click on an application’s interface. They often appear in the form of short text in a box explaining how a particular feature of your product works or prompting users to take actions, such as engaging with a new feature.

Here’s a sample of guiding new users with contextual in-app Documentation at Document360.

Walkthroughs, also known as interactive walkthroughs, are step-by-step in-app guides that help users complete a specific task. These are active product tours that require user input to progress to the next step, making them an excellent choice for onboarding documentation in B2B SaaS.

They are highly engaging as they drive users to perform actions and demonstrate the value of your product at key activation points, leading slowly and steadily to the Aha! Moment.

In-app search functionality

Self-service knowledge bases are powerful, extremely popular, and therefore important parts of contextual in-app help, but only 14% of customer issues are fully resolved with self-service.

To take this to the next level and assist your customers in avoiding frustration at this stage, a powerful in-app search functionality is crucial. In-app search also gives customers a smooth experience, as whenever they get stuck, they can simply type in the issue and start getting answers.

To do this effectively, you must map your resources to search keywords and use multimedia, such as videos, guides, tutorials, and more, to provide a more interactive experience.

If possible, invest in an advanced AI search engine that uses natural language processing and machine learning to deliver more relevant and accurate results. An advanced AI search assistant also refines search results based on user behavior as it learns over time how to better serve user needs. This enhances the user experience by making help personalized and intuitive. Eddy, an advanced AI search assistant from our own Document360, is a great example.

Multimedia support for visual guidance

It’s a scientific fact that our brains process and retain visual information much better than plain text. So, one key component for contextual in-app documentation is creating various multimedia resources, such as diagrams, to make it more impactful.

You can use diagrams instead of text to convey complex processes better, demonstrate the relationship between information or data, or map goals over time. Some examples of diagrams that work great as standalone or support documentation are:

• Flow diagram/flowchart: To explain a process or system
• Timeline: To show the chronology of events in processes/ procedures
• Mindmap: To show information hierarchy
• Venn diagram: To show the relationship between different sets of items, mostly used for comparison purposes

For example, a flowchart can be an amazing visual guide for customers onboarding as a walkthrough. It serves as a roadmap that not only guides the customers but also internal teams on what needs to be done at each stage of the customer journey.

Customizable design to match product UI

For your contextual in-app documentation to have maximum impact, ensure that it matches your brand’s visual identity and voice while addressing user needs in the most relevant way possible.

So, it’s important to customize colors, fonts, and layout styles to create a cohesive user experience that aligns with your product’s design. Use custom domains to host your documentation on a subdomain that matches your company’s primary domain.

Also, create content that addresses user needs and pain points based on their behavior, preferences, and specific points in their journey. This will result in the most relevant and quick results, reducing customer churn.

Using different content formats can help immensely to achieve this goal. You can use formats such as:

• FAQs to address the most common but important questions
• Articles with real-life case studies
• Interactive walkthroughs and tutorials for complex processes or features
• Educational content like webinars, email series, and even courses
• Downloadable resources like checklists and in-product guides

The goal is to create a cohesive experience for your users in terms of the content, how it is consumed, and your brand identity.

Deliver in-app help, faster onboarding, and smarter support with Document360. Create contextual documentation that your users will love.

GET STARTED

Common Use Cases for Contextual In-App Help

New feature rollouts

When introducing something new, you want it to make an impact that users will remember, and contextual in-app documentation is the best way to create such stickier product experiences.

Roll out the new feature to only the audience who will benefit from it, which will result in faster adoption and save frustration for those audiences who won’t.

Get your users excited about the feature release with in-app announcements that are attention-grabbing and carry strong CTAs.

Let them start engaging with your new feature and see it in action while remaining in the app with tours and walkthroughs. Don’t forget to personalize the messaging and analyze results to better serve your customers in the future.

The messaging is signature Duolingo, delivering the announcement both in an interesting and fun manner while maintaining user engagement.

Complex workflows in SaaS platforms

A powerful use case for contextual in-app help, especially for SaaS platforms, is helping users complete tasks correctly and efficiently by embedding contextual guidance directly within complex workflows.

This is not only great for end users but also internal teams using data-sensitive tools like ERP and CRM.

User errors from inadequate training or reliance on manual processes can also result in compliance failures and losses in certain industries. You can avoid this by implementing in-app guidance and directly embedding compliance checks, SOP reminders, and validation prompts within critical workflows. This ensures users follow the proper steps every time, without relying on memory or reference materials.

First-time user onboarding

Because of its ‘learning by doing’  approach, contextual in-app documentation can dramatically shorten the time it takes for your users to get to that ‘Aha moment’ about your product and its features.

Especially for complex products like B2B SaaS, hands-on experience with step-by-step walkthroughs, tooltips, and checklists can empower the user more than classroom training or lengthy documentation.

Error handling or troubleshooting

Contextual in-app documentation can also help minimize human error and empower users with troubleshooting, all at the same time.

With regulated workflows, you can ensure that employees follow SOPs by embedding rules, compliance prompts, and step validation into their daily tools. In-app guidance can also be used to remove barriers by offering real-time assistance during task execution. As users start navigating workflows confidently, their productivity increases, and they make fewer mistakes.

You can also create troubleshooting guides for end-users in walkthrough or tooltips formats, empowering them to solve issues wherever they are in the app and their journey.

Context-Sensitive Vs In-App Help: Which is More Helpful?

Now that we have discussed both context-sensitive and in-app help in a fair amount of detail, it is clear that while context-sensitive help is a great tool that every business must have, in-app help takes it to a different level by allowing the user to have a seamless experience without having to navigate away from where they are.

It is not only more engaging but also more satisfactory as it reduces friction and efficiently improves product adoption.

Implementing In-App Help using Document360 Documentation

With Document360, you can create your own in-app multilingual knowledge base help center within your SaaS app or website.

• You can customize the look and feel of the Knowledge base with custom fonts, colours, and icons to resemble your SaaS app or website perfectly.
• Our advanced AI Knowledge Base Assistant, Eddy, helps your users 24×7 find the answers they need without ever leaving your site or application.
• Serve the right set of articles to a user within your application or website based on their current URL parameters.

Document360 also comes with advanced security features, and you can book a demo today.

Conclusion

Contextual in-app documentation comes in all shapes and sizes, and if you pick the right components for your business, you can reap amazing benefits.

From reducing support tickets to boosting feature adoption, faster onboarding, and an overall enhanced customer experience, this may just be the thing you need to turn your users into loyal customers.

If you want to take your user experience to the next level, contextual in-app documentation can make it happen for you.