Your customers have questions, and they need answers now. Creating a knowledge base is a fantastic way to make sure your customers learn how to use your product and troubleshoot their issues. But if your knowledge base is incomplete or hard to navigate, it may cause more frustration than it relieves.
A knowledge base is a collection of resources with information about your company’s products and services. Customers use knowledge bases to find answers to their questions, learn how an interface works, or get technical specifications. The primary purpose of a knowledge base is to allow customers to get answers without reaching out to your company for support.
Creating a comprehensive, user-friendly knowledge base can be challenging because it requires significant research and planning. However, you can get a head start by studying examples of excellent knowledge bases.
18 Examples of Helpful Knowledge Bases
When you thoughtfully build your knowledge base, it empowers your customers to resolve their issues easily via self-help channels.
We’ve curated a list of world-class knowledge base examples from various companies for you to draw inspiration from when creating your knowledge base. Each example breaks down why the knowledge base is effective, with exciting perspectives on UX, article design, content orchestration, and more.
Here are a few of our favorite knowledge base examples:
1. Whatfix
Whatfix is a digital adoption platform (or DAP) that enables seamless adoption of enterprise applications through in-app, contextual guidance and self-help knowledge base tools.
Its open ecosystem allows it to integrate with hundreds of the most popular and widely-used SaaS products, proving its customers with comprehensive knowledge management tools that cover installation and use in detail. It also allows users to find answers in both mobile and desktop views.
Whatfix has a robust knowledge base for its customers to find answers to the questions they have – without needing to contact their CSM or support.
2. Shipt
Online delivery service Shipt’s knowledge base takes a question-based approach—the most popular questions are listed on the left side of the page, and on the right, they present information in FAQ page-style. It includes information for both shippers and shoppers, making their knowledge base a one-stop-shop for everyone who uses Shipt.
Shipt also places a user-friendly search bar in the most valuable real estate on its page to let customers ask their questions. This way, customers don’t have to dig through pages to find a specific answer.
3. Canva
Design software Canva offers an attractive knowledge base that gives its users quick access to several different top-level categories. In addition, it include links to contact support at the bottom of its homepage that customers can use when they need help fast. There’s also a link to Canva’s design school for customers who want to dive deeper into its software.
Customers scrolling through Canva’s knowledge base will quickly see a “Top Articles” section where they can read more about the most common questions asked by other customers.
4. Clearbit
Clearbit provides tools that help customers deeply understand their clients, and their software integrates with several email platforms and marketing automation systems. Its knowledge base has a clean and minimal look and serves as a great starting point for new customers.
Clearbit also lists all of its different integrations on the home page of its knowledge base, so customers can find instructions for their specific integration quickly. It’s a great example of how your unique product can inform the structure of your knowledge base.
5. Airtable
Airtable is a database-driven collaboration and project management software, so it needs to provide a great deal of information to help its customers use the software and input data. Its exceptionally organized knowledge base includes four main sections at the top—Guides, Webinars, Account, and Billing—to give its customers a direct path to the information they need.
Airtable also includes a “What’s new” section on the home page of its knowledge base that lets its customers find out more about newly released features.
6. ChartHop
Charthop is an analytics platform that helps companies strategically manage their employees. Its knowledge base includes a welcome message for new customers and provides several links to get started. ChartHop also provide a direct link to its frequently asked questions page.
Charthop’s knowledge base uses left-hand navigation to display its table of contents (TOC) at all times. This method of displaying their TOC makes sure every main topic remains at the customer’s fingertips and makes navigating its information very fast.
7. Livestorm
Livestorm is a video conferencing tool with a simple but robust knowledge base. Customers begin by using the prominent search function or scroll down and choose from over a dozen categories.
Livestorm categorizes this information in three different sections, so customers can easily find information. “Getting Started” is Livestorm’s first support option in its knowledge base, making it easy for new customers to access.
8. Box
Box, a cloud storage company for enterprises, offers its customers a bold yet straightforward knowledge base featuring colorful graphics that make each category stand out. In addition, Box has paired each graphic with a description to explain what each section will contain.
Box also includes a “learn more” link below each graphic to help customers get where they want to go, and each graphic is clickable. This simple addition ensures customers can find information without having to click back and forth between pages.
9. Hulu
Video streaming service Hulu provides an abundance of information inside its knowledge base, including a section that allows customers to search and a section that breaks down information into three areas—Billing and Plans, Using Hulu, and What’s on Hulu.
By splitting their information into distinct categories, customers don’t have to wade through irrelevant information. Hulu’s knowledge base also includes a link to its community where customers can seek answers from other users.
10. Alexa for Developers
Amazon’s Alexa Developer website serves as a knowledge base and comprehensive resource for voice developers who want to create and manage voice apps and integrate them with Alexa-related smart devices. Its website includes a myriad of guides, tools, and comprehensive tutorials to help developers build different voice experiences using Alexa.
There is a vast amount of information on the Alexa Developer site. Organizing the main topics into four easy-to-read sections and including subtopics in each section helps developers pinpoint relevant information.
11. Square
Payment processor Square’s knowledge base includes information about all of its products. Rather than clutter their site, they display only their most popular products, and customers can browse more by clicking on drop-down menus.
Toward the bottom of the page, it features trending articles to help customers find information faster. Square’s knowledge base is available to the public, but customers who already have an account can sign in using the prominent, blue sign-in button to get expedited support.
12. Wayfair
Wayfair is a high-volume online furniture store. Its help center organizes information into six topics and displays subtopics below each one. Below the topics, Wayfair offers its customers a fast way to contact its support team. Wayfair displays four buttons at the top of its main page and explicitly calls them out as “Self Service Actions.”
By labeling these actions, customers understand they can initiate a return, track a package, return a damaged item, or manage their email subscription without contacting support.
13. HelpScout
HelpScout is a customer service platform that includes knowledge bases as one of its products, so it’s no surprise they have a solid knowledge base for its customers. This well-designed site includes a search function at the top and three separate sections that refer to its products, where each section lists topics.
Its use of relevant icons above each help topic also makes it easier for customers to narrow their search for information using visual cues.
14. Shopify
E-commerce software company Shopify offers a knowledge base that helps new customers get started and assists existing customers with their questions about selling and managing their shops.
It also includes extensive navigation choices where customers can select from dozens of topics. Shopify hosts its knowledge base on a subdomain but includes several links in its main navigation so customers can seamlessly access its main website or other help pages on its site.
15. Wistia
Wistia is a video hosting platform designed for companies. Its knowledge base welcomes visitors with a search bar, then displays several categories customers can select. Users can also browse articles to learn more about its products.
Wistia places a link to its product changelog directly under the search function at the top of the page so readers can learn about product updates. It includes a rocket icon to make the link more visible, and clicking on it displays Wistia’s most recent updates.
16. Ahrefs
Ahrefs’ knowledge base center is organized and easy to navigate. It is categorized based on the actions that the user is trying to perform, such as for new users getting started, customers needing billing support, or those looking for best practices on using the platform’s advanced features. Additionally, its knowledge base articles heavily rely on screenshots that provide contextual guidance that users can follow through a process step-by-step.
17. SurveyMonkey
The SurveyMonkey knowledge base design template is clean, beautiful, simple, and intuitive. Its visually prominent search bar and clear topic categories make finding help easier for users. When users click on a knowledge base article, they get the information they need with highlighted topic categories and navigations to know where they are on the site.
The search box also has an excellent autocomplete system that suggests possible support questions users may have.
18. Dropbox
Dropbox’s knowledge base contains a series of tabs users can click to navigate various content areas. If the options at the top of the page don’t resonate with a user, Dropbox provides a large, prevalent search box with an autocomplete system to suggest possible questions. On scrolling, a community section contains the most popular topics, and help center user feedback is captured through the use of an emoji system.
Knowledge Base Software Clicks Better With Whatfix
While many brands have a robust knowledge base, it can be challenging to get users to find the contextual knowledge base article they need to overcome their specific support issue.
With Whatfix DAP, organizations can enable users to receive in-app support via Selp Help. Self Help integrates with your knowledge repositories (knowledge base, help center, training resources, customer LMS, changelog, onboarding resources, help desk, etc.), aggrating your help documentation into a searchable help center that overlays your application UI.
Users are presented with contextual support entries and help content based on their application location, persona, and user role. Users can also search for any contextual issue using Self Help’s search bar. Whatfix AI also learns from your help content, providing conversational answers based on your knowledge repositories to answer user questions.
Customer-facing teams and product managers can also use Whatfix’s no-code editor to create in-app tutorials that guide users through features, processes, tasks, and workflows via Flows. Flows can then be attached to Self Help entries, allowing users to find guided help experiences to overcome their support issues. For example, you could create a Flow that guides users step-by-step on how to update their billing information, how to use a new feature, how to add or change user roles, etc.
With Whatfix, your knowledge base becomes more than a static help center – you empower your customers with on-demand, in-app, AI-powered Self Help that acts as your users’ assistant, supporting them when and where the need it.
Ready to get started? Request your Whatfix demo today!
