Knowledge base content for end-users for Handle mobile app

Company contenxt: Handle was an early-stage startup ramping up to its second launch with an extensively redesigned product. The product was already available to beta users. At Handle I was embedded on the product team while also managing front-line support and community, including charter user groups. I was the go-to person for content because in addition to support experience I attended product planning meetings, and spent time on the UX team observing users as well as conducting surveys and customer development interviews. I also had access to user analytics.

Process for this document:. From observing analytics and answering support questions I saw that users were struggling with certain features. In response, I drafted this FAQ, which would be published in our KB. I knew the product well-enough to not utilize SME’s to create the content.

Audience and problems to solve: The content consists of feature use instructions and related information about the app’s design philosophy. The app’s value-add for users was to utilize productivity best-practices to improve daily email, to-do and calendar productivity. The Beta users were early-adopter, tech-savvy consumers that were harvested from Handle’s TechCrunch Disrupt launch and semi-private beta campaigns. The key challenge is to get users to not only learn new features, but to change ingrained behaviors.

Handle Actions FAQ

Why am I asked to let Handle know my location? What does location do?

Handle’s location-based reminders let you set any to-do or email to send you a reminder that is specific to your current location. For example, you might need to be reminded to do something when you’re in a certain place, such as home, or are near a store. This is how Handle enables you to get the right tasks done at the right place and time.

To set a location-based reminder:

1. Tap Reminders and Set a reminder. You will see the time categories such as “This morning”, “This afternoon”, etc.
2. Change the “When” selection at the top of the screen to “Where.”
3. Tap New location to create a location or select from the list of existing locations.
4. Click Save.

What does archive do?

Archiving removes emails from your inbox view, but it does not permanently delete these emails. When processing your inbox, Handle recommends archiving, rather than deleting unneeded emails to help you focus on actionable tasks. Archiving an email permits it to always be recovered through a Gmail search. (By the way, search inside Handle is coming soon!). All archived emails can also be viewed in your Gmail All Mail folder. The key difference between archive and delete is that once an email is deleted, it’s gone forever after 30 days.

What is Read Later?

Read Later in the Handle app is for lower-priority emails for which you won’t create a to-do or reminder. Read Later gives you a way to clear them from your inbox but always find them later by going to the “Read Later” label in Gmail, or by searching for them.

To remove an email from Read Later:

1. In your desktop Gmail, go to the “Read Later” label in the left navigation.
2. Open the email, and to the left of the subject line, tap the “x” to remove the label.
3. If you remove both the Read Later label and the Handle label, the email will still be recoverable in your All Mail folder.

Can I turn on push email notifications?

Handle is working to break the habit of being constantly reactive to your inbox, so we are launching without notifications for individual emails. If this type of notification is important to you, we’d love to know - you can contact us in the app. Go to the Handle side navigation > Support > Send Feedback.

How do I delete Handle?

Sorry to see you go!

To delete the Handle app, delete the app on your device.

Note: It’s possible that one notification may come up after you delete, but they will stop after that. You may notice that Handle created folders in your Gmail account - you can delete those manually, since Handle no longer touches them.

Handle stores none of your email and to-do data, so there’s no trace left on your device.

To delete Handle calendars:

1. Launch the Calendars app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap on Calendars > Edit > Select the calendar to be deleted.
3. Tap on delete calendar.
4. Tap on delete calendar one more time on the popup.
5. On your computer, in your Gmail/Apps accounts, go to Calendar > Calendar settings.
6. Delete the Handle Due Date calendar in each account by clicking ‘unsubscribe.’