FAQ Pages
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) pages are one of the most misused components
of a website, mostly because they were not designed for websites!
FAQs actually originated from e-mail discussion lists that existed before the Web. Since they used e-mail
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 e-mail 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. FAQs about FAQs is a good example of a typical FAQ, and contains other
historical information as well.
A website is fundamentally different. Your website 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 websites are also
searchable, visitors can quickly find even an obscure piece of information that
might apply to them.
An FAQ 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. An FAQ 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.