12 Best Documentation Examples to Learn From (Expert Picks)

Crafting something useful takes years of experience and AB testing.

Each section, navigation, or visual signs complements each other into creating something useful.

Documentation is no different.

Here at HeroThemes, we have been working on creating the perfect customer support products for the last 13 years, and we still get surprised by the things that can be improved.

Each type of documentation has its own role to play. A documentation created for developers will not work for beginners or produce the results that you are looking for.

It’s best to research what works best for your customers first.

In this guide, we will explore the 12 best documentation examples from various industries and things you can learn from them.

Let’s go!

Best Documentation Examples

We have covered the following documentation examples in this guide:

1. Google Help
2. Apple iPhone User Guide
3. Skype Help & Learning
4. Stripe Docs
5. Docker Docs
6. Twilio Docs
7. Campaign Monitor
8. Canva Help Center
9. Dropbox Help Center
10. University of Guelph’s Project Charter
11. Project Plan Template for MS Word
12. Project Status Report

User Documentation Examples

User documentation is the creation of quick start guides, tutorials, user manuals, FAQs, and other instructional material to provide end-users of a product or service with the help they need to utilize its full potential.

1. Google Help

Google needs no introduction. It offers hundreds of products, with each product having its own documentation.

What stands out about Google’s product documentation is that it’s a combination of static answers and community forums for users to submit feedback and ask questions.

Other notable features of Google’s documentation include:

• Users can help each other with uncommon queries. This gives the customers a better chance to get themselves heard better and raise concerns.
• User queries can be indexed on Google. This way, users can easily find these threads.
• The Upvote feature is great to see if other people are also facing the same issues and to gather support for the most important problems and ideas.
• Customers can also subscribe to updates on a discussion or post a comment to contribute an additional viewpoint.

Explore more about product documentation with our in-depth guide.

2. Apple iPhone User Guide

Apple’s iPhone is known for its intuitiveness and user-friendly features, but that’s no excuse to ignore proper documentation. Apple’s iPhone documentation is beautifully crafted yet misses to implement some key UX aspects.

Noteworthy aspects of iPhone documentation:

• There is an option to choose the iOS version. This helps end-users ensure that the instructions are accurate and relevant to them.
• Beautifully crafted graphics and layouts to support documentation.

Bad aspects of iPhone documentation:

• It takes too many clicks to find exactly what the user wants in the table of contents.
• The search bar is too small to be noticeable and useful.

3. Skype Help & Learning

Skype is a popular video meeting software from Microsoft, used for different purposes such as business meetings, educational sessions, and personal chats.

It makes for a great documentation example as its software documentation is loaded with user-friendly features:

• Different navigation and sorting options. Welcome guides and categories to explore.
• Users can indicate whether they found a document to be helpful or not and share their feedback.
• Features such as breadcrumbs and a table of contents make the documentation easy to navigate.

All of this helps make onboarding new users easy.

We have an in-depth look at examples of user documentation, check it out!

Developer Documentation Examples

Developer documentation is for tech-savvy users like software developers.

It provides detailed information on how to use or integrate software libraries or services, usually via an API (Application Programming Interface).

This type includes technical guides like use cases, authentication details, and troubleshooting tips.

4. Stripe Docs

Stripe’s documentation is praised like gold in the documentation department. It’s one of the best examples of documentation out there.

From a 3-column layout to on page shortcuts, Stripe Docs has taken every element and tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. And it works.

It’s a common layout that can be seen in many developer documentations, including Mozilla developer docs and Google PageSpeed Insights docs.

From all the features Stripe included in the docs, one that stands out is Stripe Shell.

It’s a browser-based shell for managing Stripe resources in a test mode. It is not only a helpful tool for developers, but also engages them with the documentation.

Which is very hard in the developer community.

5. Docker Docs

Docker is an open platform for building, running, and shipping applications. It allows you to separate the applications from the infrastructure in order to deliver software quickly.

What gives Docker’s documentation an amazing start is the ability to switch between Night Mode and Day Mode.

Docker’s documentation also includes an AI chatbot, which is a very convenient feature to offer support through documentation.

Other factors that make this documentation great are:

• There are Recap and Cheat Sheet sections at the end of various chapters. These sections help reinforce concepts that a user may have missed.
• Internal links are provided throughout all the pages of the documentation to make it easy for a user to expand on a piece of information.
• It allows for going back to a prerequisite page or chapter that is essential to understand the insights provided on the current page.

6. Twilio Docs

Twilio has been a top API provider helping businesses and developers with customized communication solutions since 2008.

With a beautiful combination of light and dark colors, Twilio’s developer documentation is a work of art.

Looking at the Stack Overflow popularity among developers, Twilio included the Stack Overflow Collective as a part of its support system, which is a great idea.

What else makes this documentation great?

• Twilio’s developer documentation has an elegant font style and contrasting hyperlinks. The whole interface is very easy on the eyes.
• There are several source code snippets developers can copy and paste right away to save time and hassle.
• Twilio provides an amazing level of depth even for beginners, with topics like “What’s a REST API, anyway?”

Technical Documentation Examples

Technical documentation is a mix of user and developer guides.

It requires a technical writer to clearly explain complex instructions or concepts associated with a product, making them understandable even for non-developers.

7. Campaign Monitor

Email marketing tool Campaign Monitor is a great example of technical documentation done well. It puts focus on the search feature, followed by a clean, properly structured collection of articles to help customers.

What else makes it good documentation?

• The articles are divided into categories that match the features of their email automation software.
• The App Status indicator is a clever move that tells customers if the issue they are facing is from Campaign Monitor’s end, alleviating stress.

8. Canva Help Center

Canva offers graphic design tools for personal and professional use, which can also be used on iOS and Android devices.

Canva’s expertise in design is evident from its own beautiful documentation pages. From the search functionality to article categories, there are clear choices for users to quickly find the right solution.

Canva’s documentation works because:

• The main page has a great mix of top articles, categories, and other support options.
• The “Popular Searches” help customers understand the kind of phrases they can search for to use the search feature effectively.

9. Dropbox Help Center

If you use a cloud storage service, you must have heard of Dropbox. For a SaaS solution like Dropbox, it’s a wise decision to solve the most common problems right on the homepage.

Additional highlights of Dropbox documentation include:

• The use of attractive illustrations reinforces the friendly vibe of its brand, which goes a long way in comforting people with issues.
• Integration with the Dropbox community facilitates interactions between users and gives an additional avenue to seek help.

We have a complete guide to creating technical documentation and the best technical documentation software. Explore them to learn more.

Project Documentation Examples

Project documentation involves covering key details about a project. It’s about creating comprehensive documentation to explain what’s needed over the course of the project to execute it properly.

Some examples of project documentation include project proposals, project plans, business cases, status reports, and so on.

10. University of Guelph’s Project Charter

A project charter is an official project authorization document that shares details on the project’s scope, goals, and development, in addition to the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder.

The University of Guelph’s project charter is a good documentation example. It covers all the aspects that are essential for a project charter in an easily comprehensible table layout.

11. Project Plan Template for MS Word

Another example of project documentation is a simple project plan template for MS Word. It allows you to add tasks, track start and end dates, as well as monitor the status of each task.

Nothing fancy, but it works.

12. Project Status Report

A project status report is a weekly report prepared by the project manager to convey the current state of the project to all the stakeholders. At a basic level, it covers the scope, budget, schedule, issues, and risks. Here’s an example.

Types of Documentation

We can divide documentation into the following four categories:

Learning oriented documentation

It usually contains detailed instructions. The goal is to teach the user something new. For example, Product features, use cases, or courses.

Goal oriented documentation

Mostly how-to tutorials. Users want an exact answer for their queries. For example, finding a specific setting of the product or creating something.

Understanding oriented documentation

Documents created for developers can be a good example here, as most programming-related queries can’t be answered. It mostly contains some examples on how you can use it.

Information oriented documentation

Mostly reference material or guides created for internal use. It can be SOPs, internal manuals, training manuals, or technical specifications.

Benefits of Documentation

We get it. You are busy running your business, and the last thing you want is to have to be constantly documenting things like status reports, guides, and so on.

However, when unexpected issues arise out of nowhere (and they will), you’ll be glad that you and your users have documentation to fall back on. Here are the key advantages of prioritizing adequate documentation.

Knowledge in One Place

An average knowledge worker is estimated to spend about 2.5 hours a day looking for information. Effective documentation saves everyone a significant amount of time by collecting all the essential information in one place.

Boost Productivity

Documentation ensures that things get done even with unexpected events such as the absence of a team member, or a known issue creeping up again. You are able to keep the wheels moving without wasting resources in tracking down credentials, details, and more.

Boost Satisfaction

Documentation helps keep your customers happy and satisfied. By showing them how to get the most value from your product, documentation reduces churn rate and boosts your customer lifetime value.

Adding Documentation to Your Website

Writing and maintaining documentation can feel daunting. However, every document you write can help tens of thousands of your customers get their queries answered without needing human help.

If you’re ready to get started, consider Heroic KB to add documentation to your website. It’s an easy-to-use knowledge base plugin that integrates great-looking documentation with your WordPress site. The main features of Heroic KB include:

Quick setup wizard: Install a demo template in as little as five minutes.

Customization: With a template-centric structure, Heroic Knowledge Base puts you in control of your documentation’s look and feel.

Instant Answers: Lightning fast AJAX search enables customers to find what they need in seconds.

Built-in Analytics: Get insights on how well your knowledge base is helping your users. You can also collect feedback on articles to pinpoint the ones helping your users.

AI Chatbot: Easily add an Open AI-based chatbot to your documentation.

Easy Organization: Heroic KB comes with drag and drop category ordering so you can order everything your way.

User Access Control: Password-protect and hide articles from different user roles.

Support for File Attachments: Provide your visitors with downloadable files in your articles.

Widget Support: There are three widgets for displaying knowledge base articles, categories, and authors across your site.

Developer Friendly: Heroic KB works out of the box with most well-coded or WordPress documentation themes, along with responsive styling by default.

Language Support: The plugin is translation-ready with WPML compatibility and offers complete localization support.

Excellent Customer Service: The Heroic KB team is always willing and quick to help in case you run into any issues.

Heroic KB makes it much easier to manage your documentation, and for your users to search documentation separately from your other content.

As you can see from the examples above, great documentation has tremendous potential for not just satisfying current customers, but also for training staff members and pulling in potential customers.

The efforts you put in to add documentation to your website will pay off handsomely for years to come. So, get started with Heroic KB today.