A frequently asked questions section (FAQ) is where the users go when they have a specific problem and want to solve it by themselves. This means that a good FAQ section will not only improve usability but it will also save money as less customer support will be needed.

"Amazon placed a search box specially for the help section…"

Making a FAQ section is not difficult but it takes some time. The most important task is to identify the questions the users do more frequently. You can do that checking records with employees that are in direct contact with customers. Talk to designers and programmers, to see if they also know about common questions. At last but not least, checking your competitors website could also give you some ideas (actually, that’s always a possible resource for some ideas!).

I have 3 examples. In the first one, Linkedin present the top 10 questions as a welcome page and on the left it shows a list of question groups. I like this approach but it does not have a search feature, not even one to search the question titles.

Digg has a very good frequently asked questions page that displays all the question groups on the same page, so you don´t have to click among categories. Other popular information, like how to report a bug, is on the right side of the page. Unfortunately this page also lacks of a search, but the approach is a little bit better than the Linkedin one as the user can search with the web browser search feature among all the question titles.

Amazon has the super-FAQ (it’s actually called "Help"). Questions (or answers) are organized in categories on the left side of the page, on the right side there is a perfect self-service tool box. Amazon placed a search box specially for the help section. FAQs like this one really help users and save a lot of money in customer support.