Decisions in a short doc
A few weeks ago, I completed a quick assessment exercise for a potential new client (I got the job - yay!) It struck me as I was working through it and annotating it just how many decisions we make, every time we produce a document.
In less than two pages, I made eight decisions about style and content that I felt I needed to explain. In other words, eight points where I had to make choices with no absolute, obvious standard.
A style guide, either for the whole company, or at least for the documentation team, allows you to standardise your preferences regarding each decision point. This ensures consistency, which is beneficial to users. For example, if you are consistent in always using bold to refer to UI elements, your readers can use this to scan through your docs quickly. They'll get used to the convention, reducing friction when consuming the docs.
In the long run a style guide also saves time for the writers. Once people are familiar with the it, they're able to implement its guidance, without hesitating over every decision point.
