Blog Post

Developer Blog
4 MIN READ

2022 Kicks Off With Big Updates to Dev Docs

RyanPi's avatar
RyanPi
Khoros Staff
3 years ago

 

2021 was an incredible year for the Khoros developer community. We incorporated new products and companies into our developer experience, refined navigation throughout our Developer Docs Portal (DDP). We introduced new features to help visualize use cases and demonstrate best practices.

2022 is set to be even better, with a ton of new features and improvements set to roll out early in the year. A refresh of our documentation's visual design, API reference tools, and an abundance of new content are just some of the ways 2022 is set to be the best year yet for our developer community.

Our Growing Team

Our Developer Documentation team grew in 2021 with the addition of JavidH. Javid's years of experience and fresh insight have proven invaluable to our Khoros family. He's been working primarily with the Khoros Community and Khoros Flow Developer Docs Portals.

Recipes

One of the newest features of our DDP platform, powered by Readme.io, is Recipes. With Recipes, we can explore and break down complex API requests and code examples to give context to each individual object, field, variable, etc.

Our team has plans to roll out recipes throughout 2022, covering a wide range of use cases, including individualized API request examples that demonstrate the power of our Khoros APIs.

You can find some examples of our existing Recipes below:

Navigation and UX improvements

We took significant steps in 2021 to improve the navigation of our DDP. These include updating our home and category pages to simplify and shorten the navigation flow between the home page and your target content.

In 2022, we are taking what we've learned from the initial rollout and applying it to a design overhaul, modernizing the look and feel of our documentation. The UX changes were based on customer feedback with internal and external developer documentation users. Thank you to the customers and internal Khoros teams that we interviewed during our research phase. And a huge thank you to our designer JhilikR and front-end developers ShikherM and AbhishekGu !

  • Streamlined landing page
  • Up-leveled page feedback tools
  • Persistent header and improved signposting

Streamlined landing page

Use one less click to get to the product documentation you're looking for. The streamlined hover menu removes the need for a stop at landing pages for each documentation set.

 

Up-leveled Page Feedback Tools

Many of you have used the Suggest Edit feature in the DDP Guide pages, but less have used our page feedback component – Did this page help you? widget where you can give a thumbs up or thumbs down vote and add comments so that we understand your rating.

We've moved the page feedback widget to the top of the page so that it is move visible. Please give us your ratings and comments to help us improve. We value your opinions and your input improves the experience for the entire Developer community.

Keep those Suggested Edits flowing too! We love 'em!

 

Persistent Header and Improved Signposting

Internal and external customers expressed frustration with losing their place while working in our Guides and Reference pages. We made the header persistent so that you can easily switch between guides, references, recipes, and changelog. We also added product signposting so that it is clear where you are within our documentation.

Improved Tablet Experience to Come

Nearly 99% of views on the DDP are from a desktop. That said, we see that there are occasionally folks who need to use the docs from a tablet or mobile device. The new landing page design has been designed for a table viewport. The next steps are to work at navigation and layout improvements on guides, recipes, and reference pages.

Developer flows in Maia

Maia, the Atlas chatbot now graces the pages of the DDP. Existing customers can do things like file a support ticket, learn about our Titans program, and get to Khoros knowledge bases, ideas boards, and product coaching resources directly from the developer.khoros.com. Existing and prospective customers can schedule a demo, connect with a sales agent, and learn about Khoros solutions.

Learn more about the integration in the Developer Blog.

SEO Improvements

One new project for 2022 that we're working on right now is a site-wide audit on our content's SEO. We want to make our content easier to find through the built-in search. This means renaming some existing content to better match the search queries developers are entering in.

We expect these improvements to be continually made across the DDP in January and February.

Additional Diagrams, Images, and More

We realize not everyone learns best by reading text. So, we are set to add a ton of new diagrams and images to help visualize the data, content, and user experience flow. It's our goal to not only help tell the story of what our APIs can do but to inspire the developer community to map out new ways to get the most out of the APIs.

Updated 3 years ago
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  • JohnD's avatar
    JohnD
    Khoros Alumni (Retired)
    3 years ago

    So much goodness! Looking forward to hearing what our developers think of the changes and excited about all we have in store for next year. Thanks RyanPi , SuzieH , and JavidH for the great partnership and execution over the past year.

  • Claudius's avatar
    Claudius
    Boss
    3 years ago

    Love the new front page navigation. Shaving a way at least one click on every of my visits ğŸ™Œ Looking forward to more Recipes also in the community space. A great format particularly for the basic Freemarker concepts and people new to this technology.

    An improvement suggestion: Signposting for when I have more questions about the content. Right now there's the prominent chat button on bottom right, but maybe there's also an opportunity to direct more developers to ask their question in the Dev discussion here on Atlas. Some more active worded posting than the current "Developer Forum" on top of the page. Maybe adding to the footer something like "Still have a question? Ask the developers on Atlas".

  • SuzieH's avatar
    SuzieH
    Khoros Alumni (Retired)
    3 years ago

    Claudius and mdfw. Thank you for the feedback! Our hosting platform for developer.khoros.com recently updated the layout and UI of the API Reference pages. Unfortunately, ReadMe removed the Suggest Edits widget from the API Reference section. They plan to bring it back in the future, but they haven't given us a timeframe for that. 

    I would also appreciate the ability for search results to open in a new window. That's also controlled by the platform, but it's worth investigating whether we can improve that experience somehow. I run into the same issue when I try to search for guides to answer forum posts or help our Moderators find information. 

    Claudius, great suggestion for Dev Forum signposting!

  • tyw's avatar
    tyw
    Boss
    3 years ago

    Fantastic stuff - claps for all involved! The recipes idea is :chef-kiss:! 

  • mdfw's avatar
    mdfw
    Genius
    3 years ago

    I agree with Claudius about the page navigation - it saves clicks. Also, recipes with curl calls! Yes.

    Two pieces of constructive criticism: 

    1. I don't see suggest edits on all pages. For instance: https://developer.khoros.com/khoroscommunitydevdocs/reference/create-an-abuse-report
    2. My biggest complaint with the dev area is the floaty search results. I wish search results were their own page. If I'm on the hunt for something (especially a new idea/concept), it's easier to click through, realize "nope, that's not it", go back, click another result, etc. The floaty box breaks that pattern since those results disappear on backing up. Obviously, I can use open in new tab, but I must remember to do that (and I don't always).

    Thanks for your work!