[webarch-websites] Webarchitects Websites ~ FAQs?

[Jonathan]

I'm just looking at producing a FAQ section for the website - hope 
that's going to be OK, I got a bit of positive feedback to the idea. And 
we've certainly got a LOT of questions which Chris and Alan have been 
asked/answered. It currently fills a 62 page document!! (font size 10).

Just reading some guidance before starting, at
http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/designing-effective-faq-pages/
I consider the following tips useful:

1. Title: Use FAQ but also spell it out (Frequently Asked Questions) in 
case anyone out there doesn't know the acronym - although perhaps this 
is a bit old-fashioned/takes up too much space?

2. It's good practice to add "Can't find the answer to your question? 
Feel free to email us"

3. Arranging/visually:-
(a) Think about categories of questions
(b) and also a "Top FAQs"
(c) and also "See all FAQs"
- - about halfway down this website has a few examples of how this can 
all look, under "Categorization of Questions"
(d) I like the idea of little positive/negative symbols to open/collapse 
each sub-section: There's a nice example here is titled:
"ETS has a well-structured FAQ page. Questions and answers are organized 
by topic, and the topics are collapsed by default, thus saving space."

4. A search facility is essential: call it something like "Search 
answers" or "Search FAQs" to make it clear

5. For the sake of readability, distinguish questions from answers, 
whether by colour, size, typeface or decoration. I quite like the one on 
this website where it says:
"PodShop indicates questions with a different background,"

6. Add images if these help explain the answer

7. Add "Back to top" links

Amy thoughts on all this? Meanwhile I'm going to look at my long list 
and try to arrange into obvious categories

Cheers
Jonathan