Editor’s Note: The updated edition of the Dynamic Content Delivery White Paper was released in December 2024.
While several facets of business operations are shifting to become more dynamic with the latest technologies, technical documentation hasn’t embraced change as quickly as other areas.
Companies that provide dynamic content delivery and publishing offer significant advantages to both internal teams and individual users. Below, we define what it means to deliver dynamic content, outline the benefits it offers, and showcase a preview of the topics in our White Paper focused on this subject.
What is Dynamic Content Delivery?
Dynamic delivery, also known as dynamic content publishing, provides personalized, customized, on-the-fly documentation. The content ensures each reader gains insights through contextual and complete information.
What does this look like concretely? At Fluid Topics, the moment a user decides to engage with content, the platform dynamically reassembles that documentation. To do this, Fluid Topics calls the content source, rereads the content structure, then pulls the information with the latest updates in real time so there is no outdated content. Finally, the platform compiles the information into the final document or landing page for the user to view.
Conversely, static content refers to documents that that don’t change once teams publish or push them somewhere. The only way static content — Word Documents, PDFs, web pages, etc. — changes is if someone manually replaces or updates it. The format and page layout also remain frozen.
Why is this Important for Technical Documentation?
While bulky, bound manuals sitting in file cabinet have largely given way to digital documents, these PDFs remain static and rigid. Beyond moving from paper to a screen, the user experience hasn’t changed, making it challenging to find relevant information for a specific issue when it arises. This is why dynamic content delivery is crucial: users get the right information for their context, when and where they need it. In parallel, with a Content Delivery Platform, dynamic publishing is automatic. Teams no longer need to struggle with the tedious, manual work of hand-publishing content across multiple channels.
What are the Benefits of Dynamic Content Delivery?
Dynamic content provides personalized experiences based on user behavior, enhances the user journey, and delivers relevant information to the user’s preferred content channel. This documentation is available on-the-fly from any device type. In the White Paper, we explain several advantages that this brings to teams.
- How it adds findability to content that is diverse in nature, diverse in source, and not consistently structured.
- How it brings readability to information by adding context, security, and suitability to delivery channels.
- How it provides shareability of content through documentation virtualization.
- How it creates interactivity with users through a better understanding of their behavior.
What’s included in the White Paper?
Freshly updated for the latest insights, Dynamic Delivery: What it is and Why it Matters is a White Paper produced by the Fluid Topics team, that dives into the principles and benefits of dynamic content delivery.
The first section of this White Paper distinguishes between static and dynamic content. This helps the reader understand the value dynamic content delivery brings, and why it has become a must-have not only for producers but also for consumers of information.
It then drills down into the benefits of dynamic content delivery, providing a concrete understanding of how to maximize these advantages for certain case studies.
As a bonus, the White Paper also contains tips on how to choose a solution that aligns with your organization’s strategic goals. Take a look at our 10 key points to consider before making a decision.
Get 28 pages of content-rich, illustrated insights into the why and the how of technical documentation!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2018. It has been completely edited and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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