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802.11n
Posts: 323
Registered: ‎10-26-2008
Location: Los Angeles
Message 1 of 8 (6,362 Views)

Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

[ Edited ]

I mentioned the following idea to Mark_Lenovo, and he asked me to show it to you folks.

Imagine yourself reading a message in a forum, and wondering whether there's a Knowledge Base article covering that topic. I propose simply ADDING ONE BUTTON, an "ADD & SEARCH KNOWLEDGE BASE" button, to the forums' existing user interface:





 

With the above interface, you simply type in some tags that describe the message's topic, and press the "ADD & SEARCH KNOWLEDGE BASE" button. The tags are then automatically assigned to the message, and a web page appears (preferably in a new browser tab) showing you the search results for those tags in the Knowledge Base. You can then immediately see whether a Knowledge Base article exists which covers the topic.

If tags have already been assigned to the message, then the search includes those tags as well. If you don't specify any tags, then the search uses only the tags that users have already assigned to the message.

The above change would accomplish four things:

- First, it would encourage people to assign tags to messages. In other words, people will get better search results when searching the forums, as a side-effect of this change.

- Second, it would allow readers of the forum to solve many users' problems almost instantly. I often encounter threads about problems that stymie the folks in a forum, and which already have solutions in the Knowledge Base. Right now, it's much more cumbersome to search the Knowledge Base while reading messages, to find those solutions. So this change more tightly integrates the Knowledge Base with the forums.

- Third, it would make people more aware of the Knowledge Base. I know Mark has personally put a lot of work into the Knowledge Base, I think it's a very useful resource, and it would be good to see it utilized more thoroughly by more users.

- Fourth, it would encourage users to add articles to the Knowledge Base. It's much faster to find a solution that's been condensed, vetted, and placed in the Knowledge Base, than to read through page after page of wandering discussions spanning multiple threads. And faster solutions mean happier customers.

 

Posts: 21,009
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Registered: ‎12-19-2008
Location: Australia, Melbourne
Message 2 of 8 (6,266 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

Great idea. 

Regards,

Jin Li

May this year, be the year of 'DO'!

I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft
Guru
Posts: 2,523
Registered: ‎03-19-2009
Location: DE
Message 3 of 8 (6,250 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

Very good idea. The links to the knowledgebase is too discreetly in the main menu of the forum but not visible in the sub-forums except you click "Board options".

 

Clicking the banner "Learn Community Knowledgebase" overwhelms anybody, because it is not filtered by language (english, spanish, german) and you first will need time to sort out, what you are looking for.

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Retired Guru
Posts: 2,090
Registered: ‎07-13-2009
Location: USA
Message 4 of 8 (6,233 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

I would use that, and agree that it would promote more tags,
which is also a good idea.
Kudos Jimbo!
Posts: 9,293
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Registered: ‎11-27-2007
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Message 5 of 8 (6,207 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

Jimbo, definitely a great idea and worth the kudos you've received so far and more.  I particularily like the points you make on making people more aware of and therefore adding more articles to the knowledgebase.  :thumbsup:

 

Being able to search in the KB directly from a post using tags as you suggest would definitely be an improvement on what we have, maybe it could be tweeked to involve more options

 

Just in case some members reading this thread don't know about the options of the forum's search function I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that when using the forum's search option, at the top of the page in case you missed it, there is the option in the drop down menu to search the knowledgebase as well as community, category, board and users. Searching on the community, category and board  will include KB articles in the results.

 

Thanks again for the inspiring idea Jimbo. Smiley Happy

 

 

Andy  

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Registered: ‎04-20-2010
Location: US
Message 6 of 8 (6,185 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

You have my Kudo!
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802.11n
Posts: 323
Registered: ‎10-26-2008
Location: Los Angeles
Message 7 of 8 (6,175 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

Thanks everyone, especially for the great comments!

If you implement the above button, then whenever describing it to users, it would probably be worthwhile to also mention how users can "nominate" a thread's solution for inclusion in the KB (i.e., via the thread's "Topic Options" menu, while logged into the forums).

Also, we often see that a solution implements something that engineering could potentially release in the next version of a driver, etc. That would then solve the problem for all users, whether they're aware of the forums or not. So hopefully there's a way to flag such items for the attention of the engineering team.

For example, one user has just come up with a way to perhaps dramatically improve display quality for W510/W520 users who have the high-gamut display. His procedure is understandably complex, because he has no ability to alter the machine's software. But engineering should be able provide the same ability as a default option via software updates for those machines.

Also, we've had another user who has tried to provide similar results using the built-in color calibrator of those machines. But she needs a small amount of information from engineering to continue that work. Perhaps there's a way to arrange to provide that information to her?

Thanks again!


Guru
Posts: 1,354
Registered: ‎05-29-2010
Location: SG
Message 8 of 8 (6,150 Views)

Re: Add button for instant Knowledge Base search

Kudoes to you! Smiley Very Happy

 

Have a nice day! :smileytongue::smileyhappy::smileyvery-happy:

Peter

W520 (4284-A99)

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