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Documentation Discoverability

Question: How easily can users and contributors find the information they are looking for in a project’s documentation?

Overview

Documentation Discoverability measures the ease with which users can find, access, and understand the project's documentation. Data points include the number of searches performed, the time it takes to find relevant information, and user feedback on discoverability. Documentation Discoverability can help projects attract and retain a diverse pool of contributors, improve user satisfaction, and reduce the learning curve for new users. It can ensure that documentations are searchable, visible, and inclusive for diverse audience. By making documentation easy to find and understand, projects can reduce By making documentation easy to find and understand, projects can reduce barriers to participation and promote diversity and equity within the community to participation and promote diversity and equity within the community.

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Data Collection Strategies

Survey project members:

Scale ranging from easy to find - impossible to find regarding the discoverability of documentation such as:

  • Mailing list archived communication
  • Mailing list membership management
  • Chat channel archived communication
  • Code review communication
  • Process of getting code accepted
  • Code of conduct
  • Newcomer documentation
  • Licensing information
  • Project leadership
  • Project releases documentation
  • Voting process

Multiple choice: Did you experience any challenges related to the discoverability of documentation when you started to participate in the project (e.g., language barriers, or structure of documentation)? Answer options:

  • No challenges
  • A few challenges
  • Several challenges
  • Many challenges


Resources

Contributors

  • Peculiar C Umeh

Additional Information

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To reference this metric in software or publications please use this stable URL: https://chaoss.community/?p=3534

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