Support Sites that don’t really support
Web sites that provide useful information and FAQs about products have become ubiquitous. If a software application or hand-held product is giving us difficulties or if there are features we’ve heard about but don’t know how to access, going to the manufacturer’s web site has become second nature. And, just as important, is that we check such sites before we buy a product to see if its going to do the things we want it to do.
Yet, sometimes, I think that manufacturers don’t really take time to think about questions that users will ask and instead rely upon empirical information from similar products. For example, if company X has decided to produce an MP3 player, instead of asking themselves “what might I want to know about this product in particular?”, the site designer looks at other support sites for competing products (from company Y or company Z) for producing an FAQ. I’ve never done the research nor designed such a site; its just my impression by looking around at various sites. Similar products don’t necessarily require similar support.
