Help Center / site

Summary

As the Sr Manager of Technical Content Strategy, my team owns and maintains the NS1 Help Center. The Help Center is hosted by Zendesk and contains our library of documentation for all generally available products.

My role

• I’ve written or edited most of the documentation contained within the Help Center (with some exceptions).

• I applied custom CSS to the best of my ability to improve the look, feel, and function of the Help Center on my own due to the lack of budget or dedicated resources.

• I am always looking for ways to improve the information architecture and organization of content to improve usability.

• I implemented a third-party tool (Paligo) that allows us to reuse content and publish in several formats from a single source of truth.

Go to http://help.ns1.com to view the live Help Center. Upon request, I am happy to point you to specific examples of content I authored.

API reference / site

Summary

Being an API-first company, NS1’s API documentation is a critical component in ensuring a positive developer experience. When I joined NS1, I inherited an API documentation site built by engineers and marketers, but that continues to require refinement and maintenance within the constraints of limited bandwidth, a fast-moving development pace, and the typical communication gaps often found in startup environments. This means our API doc site improvements have been slow and incremental as we aim to improve existing API documentation while keeping up with new and improved feature delivery.

Despite these challenges, I’m always working to improve the quality — as in, completeness, accuracy, usefulness, and presentation — of our API documentation. Additionally, I’m always on the lookout for inspiration related to API and developer documentation to ensure we’re adhering to generally accepted standards and best practices.

Limitations

The API documentation site is hosted by the marketing website and is subject to marketing style sheets and processes. Unfortunately, the look, feel, and function of the API docs site is not particularly conducive to a modern developer experience. I worked with the agency managing our website to try to make some improvements while I work with the team to build a site that better serves our users. Additionally, as a one-person team, I am always advocating for more and better automation tools that ensure content completeness and accuracy. The required processes and tools to accomplish this have been identified, but are yet to be adopted by the broader team.

One of the more recent additions to the API documentation is a new section related to configuring DNSSEC & DNSSEC external keys via API. The new section includes more contextual information than what we typically include.

Refer to https://ns1.com/api for the full documentation site.

The cards / print collection

The cards

#print

CHALLENGE

In preparation for a major industry trade show, we were tasked with developing new marketing collateral that would be printed and distributed at the booth. The initial request was for a more traditional brochure that included core messaging for the entire product portfolio, as well as their key applications and processes. The problem? These products were in very different stages of development, and they have very different target markets. Not to mention, we had about six weeks to develop, print, and ship the collateral to the event.

STRATEGY

We identified content requirements that would satisfy the initial sales request while adhering to a strict timeline. We knew that the right solution would:

• Be easy to create and update on the fly
  While in development, information about these products is constantly changing, so an all-inclusive brochure would have an inevitably short shelf life. Each card contains only a small bit of information, so we were able to execute a more agile content development process where we sent individual cards to the printer as they were ready.

• Speak to product-specific audiences
  Ultimately, there were 18 individual cards. We designed them so that it would be easy for booth visitors to identify groups of cards that are relevant to their specific product interest. Additionally, this allowed us to apply product-specific branding and CTAs.

• Enhance the booth experience
  Trade shows are seen as a primary opportunity for brand exposure and demonstrating industry leadership. The booth is nothing short of an art installation, so the collateral had to be extremely polished and contribute positively to the overall experience. Each card told a story about a specific product or display within the booth. A bin full of red binder clips encouraged attendees to notice the cards and create their own custom brochure.

GALLERY

RESULTS

On all accounts, the cards were very well received. The booth staff found them to be a useful resource during their conversations with attendees, and there were several immediate requests from partners to use the cards in their own marketing efforts. Even trade show attendees were enthusiastic, going as far as to share their feedback on social media:

.⁦@DesktopMetal⁩ has these great cards on its case studies in the West building ⁦@IMTSchicago⁩ pic.twitter.com/5uvW5hed2H

— Jeff Kerns (@JKerns10) September 12, 2018

Metal 3D printer / spec sheet

CHALLENGE

Creating a spec sheet for the world’s first office-friendly metal 3D printer requires thorough research to better understand the target audience—what they’re looking for and how, in context, the information should be organized to be both familiar and educational.

Hardware specifications

Download PDF

Industrial IoT software / brochure

BROCHURE | The challenge was to design a brochure that illustrated the key benefits of an intelligent lighting management software.

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Intelligent LED fixture / install instructions (multi-lingual)

CHALLENGE
Provide detailed instructions for installing intelligent LED fixtures in an industrial facility — including inline translation into seven languages while adhering to relevant international regulatory requirements.

Installation instructions

Download PDF

Intelligent LED fixtures / spec sheet

CHALLENGE

The challenge was to cover in detail the technical specifications, positioning, ordering information, regulatory requirements, and configuration-based performance comparisons for the entire product family in no more than eight pages.

Spec sheet

Download PDF