User Manual Redesign
Restructured a 200-page user manual for an enterprise IoT platform using DITA, enabling single-source publishing across web, PDF, and in-app help.
- Organization
- Placeholder Client C
- Date
- November 2023
- Type
- DITA User manuals Single-sourcing
Context
An enterprise IoT platform shipped a 200-page PDF manual that was updated twice a year. Support calls spiked after every firmware release because the manual was already out of date by the time customers received it.
Challenge
Manual was authored in Word with heavy formatting applied directly — no structure, no reuse. Publishing to multiple outputs (web help, in-app tooltips, PDF) required manual copy-paste work each cycle.
Approach
Migrated content to DITA using task, concept, and reference topic types. Established a component content strategy so shared content (warnings, specifications) was authored once and reused across deliverables. Set up DITA-OT publishing for web, PDF, and a lightweight JSON feed for in-app tooltips.
Outcome
Release cycle for documentation updates dropped from 6 weeks to 3 days. In-app help tooltips are now generated automatically from the same source as the web manual.