Microsoft Office Online Content Creation Case Studies

About Office.com First Step

First Step – Office.com is content that delivers how to use Microsoft’s flagship Office products. Content has been added with each version upgrade of Office products, and it is one of the most popular sections on Office.com, with high numbers of accesses and repeat visits. The reason for its popularity is that it goes beyond simple feature introductions, mainly targeting home users by specifically covering usage scenarios and convenient ways to use the products.

 

In Japan, it is common to see books on how to use application software stacked in bookstores, but overseas, the sales of such software usage books are not as significant. For this reason, content originating from Japan that promotes the use of Office products in a wide range of scenarios has also attracted attention abroad. It is available in 18 languages in the Asia-Pacific region alone and is offered in more than 40 languages worldwide.

 

Human Science has been assisting with the "First Steps" section for over 10 years since its initial planning and has also responded to the need to create English content first for multilingual deployment.

 

 

Request from Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd.

We want the content to be interesting and fun!

The main request was to devise scenarios assuming usage scenes for home users that would make them want to try it out. In particular, they wanted to focus on visually appealing subjects that would make people want to create something themselves.

The request was to understand the features of new functions by operating the preview version of the application before its release and to create articles while imagining the expected usage scenarios at home.

 

Voice of Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd.

We have entrusted Human Science with the production of this content for over 10 years since the Office 2000 series.

This time, especially since I myself was juggling many other projects simultaneously, I wanted to proceed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Therefore, at the start of the project, we shared the direction of the content, and thereafter, we set up regular review sessions where we confirmed the tone of the themes and the content scenarios during those review meetings.

This approach was correct. Instead of reviewing each application separately, having all the writers responsible for each application present together allowed us to align the overall touch of the content and create the content as envisioned.

 

From Human Science representatives

This time, including revisions and new creations, it was necessary to complete a total of 300 pages of writing within three months, so we established a team consisting of one project manager and three technical writers.

Each writer not only had the awareness of creating content but also approached the task with the mindset of being a user of Office products, striving to create engaging content.

One of the writers, when writing the scenario "Creating an original manuscript paper in Word," created the manuscript imagining it would be used by an elementary school child.

Additionally, the writer responsible for the OneNote recipe book scenario happily shared that they uploaded photos of the dishes they cooked based on it to their blog.

Because the creators were able to enjoy writing, we feel that the content turned out to be appealing to users as well.

 

 

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