---
title: "Two Competing Help Models: One-Stop Shopping or Specialized Stores?"
date: 2013-02-13
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2013/02/13/two-competing-help-models-one-stop-shopping-or-specialized-stores/
---
# Two Competing Help Models: One-Stop Shopping or Specialized Stores?
![Two strategies for organizing help content](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/allinonesite-or-specialized-sites1.png)

To use a metaphor, you can choose between a one-stop-shopping experience, where almost everything is available in one supercenter warehouse. Or you can choose a specialty store model that focuses on a much narrower set of products. Which is the better approach for help content?

## Search Advantages

One main advantage in aggregating all help content under one roof is centralized search. Users can search in one place and find everything they're looking for. However, if you have 4,000 topics, the search results may not be that useful, especially if you're searching for a general topic (e.g., "Rights and Roles"). The topic you're looking for may be buried in a sea of similar but irrelevant information.

In contrast, with a specialty store model, search results show a more narrowly focused set of results. For example, searching for "Rights and Roles" will return results focused on the product or service you're interested in. Of course, if you don't find the topic, you may second-guess whether you're in the right help site to begin with. Maybe your answer lies within another help system? You may need to run the same search in ten different help files.

## Browsing

Browsing also becomes problematic when you have 4,000 topics in the table of contents (the one-stop-shopping model). Browsing through books and sub-books and sub-sub books and sub-sub-sub books to find the right topic is tedious.

If you expand out all levels of the table of contents, the information starts to look really complex. Users may feel intimidated and overwhelmed about where to even begin. It's too much to learn. Subsequent forays into the help may lead to more familiarity, but not for new users.

With a small store, it's much easier to browse the available products. As long as the user can find the right store, or the right entry point into the help, the experience navigating the information will be much more pleasant. The smaller table of contents won't be as intimidating, and users can more easily browse content in an approachable way.

## Cross-Promotion of Other Products

While a massive table of contents can make browsing more difficult, it does have a unique advantage: it helps users realize what they didn't know. A while ago, I noted that [users don't know what they don't know](https://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/26/browse-versus-search-organizing-content-9/). If users don't know about product Z, but discover it while browsing for help with widget M, you've helped users find new information they might not have discovered if you hadn't aggregated both product Z and widget M's help on the same site.

In short, aggregating content on the same site allows you to cross-promote other products. You can have a list of related links that allows users to see similar topics in products and services they hadn't even considered.

The downside with cross-promotion is that you may end up presenting users with a lot of irrelevant information. Users may not be interested in getting help for products or services they're not using, and seeing these "related" links clutter up the help content might be distracting.

## Maintenance and Design

If you group all content in one site, [designing and maintaining the site](http://ripeconcepts.com/services/web-design-and-development/website-maintenance/) gets a lot easier. If you change one element of your site, such as your layout or style sheet, all content automatically receives the change. If your site is database driven, you have to update or back up only one database rather than dozens.