STUDENT AFFAIRS
IT OPERATIONS GROUP

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked question sections are one of the most misused components of a web site, mostly because they were not designed for web sites!  FAQs actually originated from email discussion lists that existed before the Web. Since they used email messages to communicate, messages arrived randomly, and members of these lists could not easily look back at previous discussions.  Because every question (and each response) ended up as an email message to every subscriber, it was important for these groups, some of which contained thousands of users, to come up with a way to reduce redundant messages. So they took the most common questions and combined them into one (usually very long) message which would be sent out to everyone on a regular basis. They were actually designed to be ignored by most of the people that received it.  The FAQ about FAQs is a good example of a typical FAQ, and contains other historical information as well.

A web site is fundamentally different.  Your web site is not ad-hoc; you will decide exactly what information will be presented and exactly how it will be organized.  Feedback from your visitors will give you insight into what needs to be improved or reorganized over time. Because web sites are also searchable, visitors can quickly find even an obscure piece of information that might apply to them.

A frequently asked question section rarely improves the ability for visitors to find important pieces of information on your site--that is the job of your menus and navigation. A badly designed FAQ will actually make it harder by frustrating your user with badly organized information without a solid context.  The time you spend creating an FAQ section is much better spent improving the overall organization and content of your site.

If you still feel the need for an FAQ section, these guidelines for web FAQs will help you:

• An FAQ section is not an excuse to avoid creating good content. If a piece of information is that important for you to convey, take the time to organize and present it properly.
• An FAQ section is not a grab bag of information! If a question is really being asked frequently, that means that you should be adding or improving that information in the appropriate place on your site.
• If a question has not been asked frequently and by students (or your appropriate target audience), it does not belong in your FAQ!  A frequently asked questions page is not a place for hypothetical questions that you think might be asked. You are just creating more clutter for your visitors to go through to find the information they do want to see.
• Don't recreate your content. Answers to frequently asked questions should be short, and should usually point the visitor to the complete answer that already exists somewhere on your site.
• When you decide to add a question to your FAQ, try to generalize it slightly before posting the answer.
• Your FAQ should only contain questions for which you can provide an authoritative answer. This means that questions should generally remain topical to your department or area. Refer visitors to other department's sites where necessary.
• Your FAQ requires constant attention.  As soon as a single question becomes out-of-date, it will no longer be considered a reliable source of information.