Cook ‘em Like Gumbo

Abstract

Gumbo (the official state dish of Louisiana) is known for assimilating many culinary traditions throughout its rich history. The highly revered dish continues to be influenced by multicultural traditions and is enjoyed by a diverse group of people. Customer-facing Help and How-to document system at Oregon Health & Science University shares many features as gumbo: articles are authored by experts from various missions, they share similar and consistent content structures, and are served to diverse customer bases. Although the Help and How-to document repository has been in existence for just over five years, we learned from many challenges and successes when developing the system. We have learned where and how customers interact with information, what types of articles are in high demand, and how documents complement our communication campaigns. We have adopted better inclusion practices with the words and graphics we use, and raised awareness for accessibility concerns. We also expanded our group of core editors during this time. Yet there are more changes on the horizon. With the organization's imminent ITIL adoption, the role of support articles and technology challenges will continue to evolve—just like gumbo.