Writing Technical Content

At Sprinthub, technical content appears primarily in our engineering blog, though the marketing lead may decide to move a technical content to our main blog. This section will lay out the guiding principles of technical content, discuss the main types of technical content, and outline the process of writing and editing technical articles.

Basics

Someone reading technical content is usually looking to answer a specific question. That question might be broad or narrowly focused, but either way our goal is to provide answers without distraction.

For each project, consider your audience’s background, goal, and current mood. Ask these questions:

• Is the reader a beginner, an associate, or a senior?
• What is the goal of the reader? To complete a task? To research a topic?
• Is the reader in the middle of a task? Are they in a hurry? Could they be frustrated?

We don’t want to overload our audience with unnecessary information, choices, or complex ideas or phrases when we don’t have to. This is particularly critical when a reader may be frustrated.

When relevant, provide a brief outline of an article’s focus in an introductory paragraph or section, and stick to the topic at hand. Keep sentences, paragraphs, and procedural steps focused and concise.

Guidelines

Writing technical content

When writing technical content, follow the style points outlined in the Voice and tone and Grammar and mechanics sections. Here are some other goals and pointers to keep in mind.

Stay relevant to the title

When a user clicks the title of an article, they expect to find the answer they want. Don’t stray too far from the title or topic at hand. Use links to make related content available. If you find you’re getting too far from the intended topic, then you may need to create a separate but related article.

Keep headlines and paragraphs short and scannable

Focused audience often scan an article for the part that will answer their particular question. Be sure headlines are short, descriptive, and parallel, to facilitate scanning.

Use second person and describe actions to a user

Technical content talks to audience when support agents can’t.

Strive for simplicity and clarity

Be as clear as possible. Use simple words and phrases, avoid gerunds and hard-to-translate idioms or words, focus on the specific task, limit the number of sentences per paragraph. If you must include edge cases or tangentially related information, set it aside in a Before You Start list or Notes field.

Provide context through embedded screenshots, videos, and GIFs

Screenshots, videos, and GIFs may not be necessary for every article or process, but can be helpful to orient new audience. Crop screenshots tightly around the action to focus attention.

Formatting technical content

Technical content uses organization, capitalization, and other formatting to help convey meaning. Although articles are organized differently, some formatting tips are consistent throughout all technical content.

Capitalization

Capitalize proper names of Sprinthub products, features, pages, tools, and teams when directly mentioned. In step-by-step instructions, capitalize and bold navigation and button labels as they appear in the app.

• Sprinthub
• Compliance Team, Billing Team
• Navigate to the Reports page.
• Click Create.

Headings

Organize article content with H2s and H3s. Use H2s for higher-level topics or goals, and use H3s within each section for supporting information or tasks.

Article title: A guide to building Landing Pages

• H2: How we build landing pages at Sprinthub
• H2: How to use landing pages
• H2: Resources
  • H3: Get inspired and learn best practices
  • H3: Create a landing page
  • H3: Learn about SEO tricks in landing page design

Ordered Lists

Only use ordered lists for step-by-step instructions. Separate steps into logical chunks, with no more than 2 related actions per step. When additional explanation or a screenshot is necessary, use a line break inside the list item.

Unordered Lists

Use unordered lists to display examples or multiple notes. If an unordered list comprises more than 10 items, use a table instead.