Help! Building an Effective Video Support Page

You are about to finish implementation; all the bells and whistles are enabled, workflows established, and functionality tried and tested.  The excitement of launching video all over your institution is brewing. Now you are discussing end user adoption and usage.
And then the question arises, “How should we build our support page?”
That moment when you realize that all you have learned and experienced needs to be transitioned to a self-service resource page can be overwhelming. Usually, the gut instinct is just to document EVERYTHING. How will you possibly record it all?

Using Video on Your Support Page

The first key to creating a great support page for a video solution is to use the solution itself: build it out of video! (Actually, using video for your support page is incredibly effective for supporting any solution, not just video itself.) Showing people how to solve their problems or perform procedures is usually much more effective than trying to describe it. Video tutorials are easy to follow, and often easier to create than finding the perfect words to explain each step. But creating that many videos is a daunting prospect.
Here are some ideas for how to use video on your support page:

• Show examples of how to use your solution
• Use video snippets to walk through a solution and how it is being used
• Use in- video quizzing to solicit feedback and test the understanding of the user
• Use the answers from quizzes to prompt additional information to be provided to help clarify or give additional support

Best Practices for Building a Support Page

The reality is that creating a knowledge base can be effective and successful by keeping in mind some of these established best practices:

• Establish the goals that you are trying to achieve.

What are you trying to prevent or resolve?  Are you trying to lower the number of support cases coming to the teams?  Are you trying to provide training to the end users so they can begin using the solution with minimal support?  How will you measure the success of these tools and resources?

It is important to ensure that you have an end goal in mind, as the design of the knowledge base will change based on those goals.  If you are trying to prevent support cases, you may have a top 10 issues list that you would create content on how to resolve, or consider providing quick video training platform.  If your goal to is to increase adoption and usage, you may show sample use cases or examples of how video can be used more effectively. For example, you might demonstrate how to provide video feedback, or create a video assignment.

• Keep it user-friendly and intuitive.

Though it’s tempting to put everything at users’ fingertips, a busy page creates confusion. You don’t want to force users to read through a wall of content just to find what they’re looking for.

Focusing on the search bar and establishing some key word search terms can be a timesaver for the end users search experience.  Keeping track of the users’ search terms after a period of use can also help in establishing what those key words should be.

• Keep different levels of user experience in mind.

Keep your end user in mind and ensure that you are providing information and resources that are relevant to that audience.   Often clients report that they have varied levels of knowledge that they must manage and find it difficult to establish resources for all.

One example I saw in the field is a 5-question quiz that established what type of audience member was accessing the information, and the content was adapted to that user.

• Establish a knowledge base pilot.

Create a team of end users across your organization to test the knowledge base and provide feedback. This ensures you work out the kinks before launching to the general population. Plus, tracking their search terms can help define themes and initial key words for the solution.

• Try to establish common themes to help categorize the content and make it easier to discover additional information.

• Have a plan for how content will be kept to date. Plan a workflow where content will expire or require a review to ensure it is always fresh.

Roy Eldar, Kaltura’s VP of Customer Care, also suggests proactively flagging services cases that imply the need for additional self-service content. Establish procedures for continuous content updates and reviews.

• Make it easy to find.

Make sure you have the resource page in a place that is easy to find, and doesn’t move often.  If users must look for that page for more than 3 clicks, they will move on and submit tickets or call.

• Don’t reinvent the wheel if you’re in a time crunch.

Leverage what’s already out there where possible to save time. For example, you can leverage video assets from Kaltura to help jump start your page while you establish your own.

A knowledge base for end users is an important part of launching your Kaltura solution—or any solution—in your institution. With a successful knowledge base, users will be empowered to leverage video everywhere.

Launching a new initiative? Watch the webinar “Video Engagement and Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide.”