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Product design
PRODUCT DESIGN·5 min

Supademo: record a workflow that others can click through

Supademo creates interactive demos and step-by-step guides. Support, training and product teams can turn a workflow into explained steps that readers explore at their own pace.

Form your own approach first, then explore the reasoning to check trade-offs and validation you may have missed. There is no single right answer.

01
DESIGN QUESTION

How can one guide serve both learning and quick reference?

You manage the guide for a teaching report tool. New colleagues need to learn a three-step export from the beginning; returning colleagues usually want to confirm the date range. The current guide places five hotspots on its first screen, leaving readers unsure where to start. This is an invented design scenario.

  1. The three required steps are “choose a report, set the dates, export.” Two additional explanations clarify date definitions without changing the main path. You may rearrange instructions and entry points, but not change the business product.
  2. Compare one main hotspot per step with several hotspots on one screen. Walk through a new colleague reading from the beginning, a returning colleague entering at step two, and a later interface redesign.
  3. Deliver a flow sketch, a way to distinguish main steps from supporting explanations, and an observation task. Check whether readers can explain the exported date range, not just whether they click through.
Explore the reasoning
  1. Distinguish actions from explanatory material by asking whether each affects the next step. Not every note needs to become a mandatory click.
  2. Check the three-step main path for missing information, then decide where supporting material appears. Someone arriving at step two still needs the current report and date definitions.
  3. Compare reading and maintenance costs. Duplicating a screen controls explanation order, but an interface redesign may require updates in several places.
  4. Ask observers to complete a specific export task and explain the range, then record where misunderstandings occur. This is a proposed test; do not assume a successful result.