A building products company can have more documents than products: spec sheets, install guides, warranties, safety data sheets, and CAD files, for the current line and for products sold years ago. Contractors, dealers, architects, and homeowners all need them, and most of them arrive with a model number and nothing else.
Why can't people find our product documents?
Because the documents live in several places and nobody owns the whole set. One team posts spec sheets on product pages, another keeps install guides in a separate support section, warranties sit in a PDF from years ago, and CAD files are on a vendor site. The same document shows up three times with three dates, and the old product's papers disappeared when its page did.
What is the right structure for a product document library?
One library, with every document tagged to the products it covers, and every product page pulling its documents from that library.
- One home for each file. A document lives in one place and appears on every page that needs it. No copies.
- Tagged by product, type, and status. Model or series, document type (spec sheet, install guide, warranty, safety data sheet, CAD), and whether it covers a current or discontinued product.
- A document page for each product. All the papers for one product in one list, including the versions for older models.
- A library search page for people who arrive with a model number, a part number, or a document type and no idea which product page to open.
How should we name and version the files?
Pick one naming pattern and use it everywhere: product, document type, and date or revision. Keep the current version at the same address every time, so links in dealer materials and installer bookmarks keep working. Keep older versions in a labeled history, because someone installing a product bought years ago needs the guide that matches it.
How do people search by model number or an old product name?
Make the model number, the part number, and every past name of the product searchable, and map them to the current product. Homeowners read the name off a sticker on a window that is fifteen years old. Contractors use the name the product had when they learned it. Pull the searches that return nothing and add those words.
For Marvin I did the UX for the relaunch of a flagship double-hung window, and the old version's URLs and documentation had to keep working for everyone who already owned it. How to plan that is covered in how to relaunch a product without breaking the old pages.
Who should own each document?
A named person or team for every document type, with a date to review it. Product management usually owns spec sheets, the technical team owns install guides and safety data, and legal or customer service owns warranties. The web team owns the library and the tagging, never the content. When a product changes, the owner updates the document in the library, and every page that shows it updates with it.
For Honeywell I worked on consolidating about 300 websites into 13, with content studies and a large taxonomy project. The same work applies to a document library at any size: find out what is there, decide what stays, and name it the way the people searching for it do.
What does it cost?
A one-hour second opinion on your document setup is $150: we look at how people find documents today and what I would fix first. A content study and taxonomy research with your contractors, dealers, and support team runs as a fixed study price, quoted before we start on UX research and leadership.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.