Building a knowledge base is the easy part. Getting employees to use it consistently is where most programs stall. Knowledge base adoption depends on five factors: content quality that matches real employee questions, a search experience that surfaces the right result quickly, format variety that includes interactive content alongside text, integration with the tools employees already use, and a feedback loop that keeps content current.

iorad addresses format variety and integration directly: interactive step-by-step tutorials are more likely to be completed than text articles, and iorad's help widget embeds the knowledge base inside the applications employees use every day. This article covers all five keys with actionable implementation guidance.

The 5 keys to increasing your knowledge base adoption are:

  1. Searchable Content: No one likes endlessly searching. A user searching for help is already frustrated & short on time, make content easy to find.
  2. Relatable Content: Have you ever gone to search for a particular document and all the “help documentation” was information no one cares about? It’s frustrating! Be sure that help articles are relatable to the majority of your users.
  3. Up-to-Date Content: Users love to see updates & enhancements in a product — it’s exciting & builds pride in the product. However, this can quickly become a pitfall & frustration for your users if documentation fails to remain updated.
  4. Accessible Content: It’s pretty standard to have a knowledge base site outside of the application in need of support. It’s crucial to provide many points of contact that direct the user to the Knowledgebase. Making the content easily accessible for users to find when they are in a pinch.
  5. Understandable Content: You’ve been there… after trying numerous searches the article is hard to follow. One might print it in hopes it's easier to follow step by step to complete the process. These articles need to be easily readable & consumable. If too many words, no visuals, or too lengthy, you’ll lose the opportunity to assist your users through the knowledge base.

That’s it in a nutshell. Just remember — turn support tickets into KB articles, link KB articles in ticket responses, and of course our 5 keys to adoption. If you follow this guideline, you’ll be a support ninja in no time.

Measuring knowledge base adoption

Most organizations measure knowledge base activity by page views, which tells you how many people visited but not whether they found what they needed or applied what they learned. Better adoption metrics include tutorial completion rates, search exit rates (how often someone searches and leaves without clicking a result), and support ticket deflection on topics covered by the knowledge base.

iorad's analytics provide tutorial-level completion data, making it possible to see which content employees actually finish versus which they open and abandon. This data is the foundation for a continuous improvement cycle: find the content with low completion rates, identify why, improve the content, and remeasure.