Primary user need: I want to accomplish something.
In a how-to guide the user determines the goal. They arrive knowing what they want to achieve and need practical instructions for achieving it. Some prior knowledge can usually be assumed, and how much depends on the intended audience.
Include
- A clear outcome
- Required prerequisites
- Direct, ordered instructions
- Relevant warnings
- Common or meaningfully different alternatives
- Enough context to understand and complete the task
Leave out lengthy conceptual discussion, exhaustive reference information, and unrelated possibilities that happen to concern the same feature.
We are deliberately less strict here than the category allows. If a short explanation helps the user understand a step or stops them making a mistake, it stays. The user should not have to leave the page and research something basic just to follow the procedure.
The failure to watch for is the opposite one: the guide quietly becoming a complete article about the feature rather than an answer to one practical question.
Worked example
How to enable two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication has its origins in the multi-factor security models developed for banking in the 1990s. There are three broad categories of factor: something you know, something you have, and something you are. TOTP, the standard we implement, derives a six-digit code from a shared secret and the current time, which is why clock drift on your device can cause codes to be rejected. To enable it, open Settings.
How to enable two-factor authentication
You will need an authenticator app installed on your phone. Codes are time-based, so if your phone clock is wrong they will be rejected.
- Open Settings and select Security.
- Select Enable two-factor authentication.
One sentence of explanation survives, because it prevents the most common failure. The history goes to an explanation page, or nowhere.
