A user guide is a document that teaches someone how to use a product, system, or service. It differs from a tutorial in scope: a tutorial walks the reader through one task to build a skill; a user guide covers the product comprehensively, organized so readers can find what they need when they need it.
User guides combine several content types. They typically include:
- Getting started — a short section (often a quickstart) that gets the reader to a working state as fast as possible. John Carroll’s minimalist documentation research found that readers want to start doing things immediately, not read background material first [@carroll1990].
- Task-based sections — organized by what the reader is trying to do, not by how the product is structured internally. Janice Redish argues that documentation should follow the reader’s tasks, not the product’s architecture [@redish2012].
- Reference documentation — lookup-organized material for readers who know what they’re looking for.
- Troubleshooting — common problems and their solutions, organized by symptom.
The most common failure in user guides is organizing content around the product’s features rather than the reader’s tasks. A guide structured by menu item or module forces the reader to already understand the product in order to find what they need — the opposite of what a guide should do.
Related terms
- tutorial — teaches one skill through a worked example; a user guide covers the product broadly
- reference documentation — lookup-organized content often included within a user guide
- quickstart — a compressed getting-started section
- procedural documentation — step-by-step instructions that form the core of task-based sections