Customizing MadCap Flare for a Unified User Experience: A Success Story
In the dynamic world of digital innovation, the importance of delivering not only high-quality products but also an exceptional user experience has become paramount for businesses. This holds especially true in a landscape where user engagement and ease of access to information are key determinants of success.
One of our customers was facing a significant challenge due to the disintegrated Salesforce Community Cloud and MadCap Flare knowledge base. So, they wanted to unify their user experience, reduce unnecessary clicks, and elevate the accessibility of their technical documentation.
That’s where our MadCap Flare wizards stepped in to streamline the design and create effective technical documentation. We helped them create a unified web experience while ensuring brand consistency. Here’s the full story.
How It Began
Our customer, a technology giant in San Jose, California had built their community on Salesforce Community Cloud and knowledge base on MadCap Flare. An old layout structure had led to a disjointed UI and UX between the community and knowledge base.
Also, there were multiple redirections to access the technical docs. To check product documentation, the user would have to log in to the community and be redirected to a landing page, before finally reaching the product document.
They wanted to:
- Reduce the clicks and improve the accessibility of their MadCap documentation page.
- Create a unified user experience across their web portals while following their brand guidelines.
- Implement advanced features that could be created within the MadCap Flare environment.
What We Did
After a thorough analysis of their requirements, here’s what we did:
Created Materialized Design to Streamline UX
We revolutionized the user experience by implementing a materialized design on the master pages of MadCap Flare. This transformation simplified the usability for technical content writers, making their work more efficient and enjoyable.
Built Customized Solutions
To amplify MadCap Flare’s capabilities, we crafted customized solutions and introduced game-changing features like the mega menu, sticky header, tooltip for easy URL copying, and a custom breadcrumb structure. This enhanced the overall user experience.
Empowered Technical Writers With Custom Features
We took customization a step further by implementing a range of custom features. These included a user-friendly ‘copy code’ option, a ‘read time’ indicator, dynamic labels on pagination buttons, and user profiles.
Implemented Advanced Search With SearchUnify
We integrated an advanced search functionality using SearchUnify, an AI-powered enterprise search solution by Grazitti. This brought an array of features, including federated search and a chatbot capability to increase content accessibility.
Integrated Reusable Code Snippets for Efficiency
We prioritized efficiency and productivity by incorporating reusable code snippets for handling conditional content. This approach allowed us to structure the content in a way that promotes faster content creation and simplifies ongoing maintenance.
Enhanced Download and Feedback Plugins
We also created two essential plugins. The first one allows users to download PDFs with options like the current topic, topics with subtopics, and the entire documentation – providing flexibility and convenience. The second plugin lets users share feedback via email, promoting seamless communication and continuous improvement.
Ultimately, we were able to successfully streamline the design, enabling the customer to offer a cohesive web experience. The integration of newly developed plugins adhered to Flare’s editing capabilities, empowering content writers to work on templates without the need for coding. This solution maintained brand consistency by following the customer’s branding guidelines.
Moreover, we enhanced the user experience by introducing additional plugins, further enriching the documentation. Our journey demonstrates the significant impact of customization and innovation in creating a seamless and user-centric content management system.