Cisco Meraki Best Practice Design document - and documentation in general

[rhbirkelund]

On the Meraki Documentation site, there are lots of information on configuration and operation. But as always, navigating the documentation site is a complete disaster. If it weren't for third-party search engines, I feel that no-one would be able to quick and easy find the help they need.

With regards to Best Practices, the Meraki Documentation site also contains lots of information, and lately I've found my self learning more and more towards the recommendations given in the best practices documents. One of these documents are https://documentation.meraki.com/Architectures_and_Best_Practices/Cisco_Meraki_Best_Practice_Design

But to be completely honest, I have absolutely no idea what's in that article. The reason why I don't know what's in that aricle is because there is SO MUCH information, the article itself it daunting to read. I think that either;

a) Add a structural overview of the article. e.g. a Table of Contents, or

b) split the article up into their parts, and link to them from within a "master document".

In addition to, what seems to be a Master Best Practice document, I've found two different versions of a Meraki MS Best Practice document, which both seem to contain somewhat the same info. One article was updated in November, 2022, and the other updated in October 2020.

https://documentation.meraki.com/Architectures_and_Best_Practices/Cisco_Meraki_Best_Practice_Design/...

https://documentation.meraki.com/Architectures_and_Best_Practices/Cisco_Meraki_Best_Practice_Design/...

I really wish that more ressources were given to updating the Meraki Documentation page, streamlining information, and making it easier to browse through the articles.

Because frankly - its current state is ridiculous. 

[PhilipDAth]

Yep - I rely on Google to search the documentation site.

[AmyReyes]

This is great feedback, @rhbirkelund! Thank you for taking the time to document this and share it with us. I've passed along your post to John Ingram, our Knowledge Manager.

[JohnIngram]

@rhbirkelund As Amy said, this is great feedback, and I absolutely agree with all of the points you've made. I think this example highlights an issue that affects the usability of our documentation on a relatively broad scale, and is something that I hope my team can make demonstrable progress towards resolving in the coming months. 

In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have any additional feedback or concerns about our documentation. It should be an effective, effortless resource for all Meraki customers; the best way for us to make that happen is to hear feedback like this directly from you all. 

[rhbirkelund]

Hey @JohnIngram 

If you're looking for another example for the To-DO list, here's one more.

Wanting to browse through articles regarding L3 Switching on MS switches, I can browse to https://documentation.meraki.com -> Click on MS - Switches -> Click on Layer 3 Switching. This brings me to this page; https://documentation.meraki.com/MS/Layer_3_Switching

And essentially the only thing I can see are four different lists, in basically four different orders - views, rating, date updated, date created.

As a user/admin, I have absolutely no interest in fours lists ordered differently. I want to see all articles under this topic, hoping to find the one i might be interested in. I want to see an overall list incase there is an article that I didn't know existed, but which sparks my interest for some reason or another. As it stands, all I see is a select number of articles, two of which in a language I don't even understand (this isn't an issue as such, but perhaps they could be moved to a section which collects all articles in the same language?).

And this site, is no way the only one. All sub "folders" are like this, and it makes browsing 100% impossible.

[JohnIngram]

@rhbirkelund Surely four arbitrary, incomplete lists is the best way to organize a body of content, right? 😵

Thanks for the feedback. I've been considering ways that we can make these pages more helpful or useful. If you have more ideas, I'm certainly open to hearing them.

I think you might not be our typical use case, but I'm curious how often you browse documentation for articles you didn't know exist. We tend to think of our primary audience as people seeking answers or information, rather than casual browsers, so most of the consideration is for improving the experience for someone who wants to get in, find an answer, and then get out. I don't think we get much feedback from people who browse leisurely. 

[PhilipDAth]

I'm not a casual browser.  I look up information in the documentation 3 times a week.  I usually know the information is there, and I want to look it up to clarify something or refresh my memory on how something works.

I use Google.  It is impossible to find information using the documentation site navigation.

[rhbirkelund]

Usually, I'm also not a casual browser, just like @PhilipDAth. I just use the documentation site a lot, when having to refer back to facts during pitches, corner-case I may have doubts on, refresher on feature behavour etc. 

As an example, a few months ago, I as looking into SAML Authentication for AnyConnect, since a customer of mine had been asking into possibilities for added MFA on their Anyconnect VPN using Meraki Cloud Authentication. This was not something I had been worked with before, and thus not much experience in, so I had to rely on the documentation. Which by the way, I also found somewhat imprecise.

But sometimes I also tend to browse, and go exploring in the difference articles, as sometimes I've stumbled over relevant info/configuration guides for things my Google Search for some reasons didn't show.

I think what's most important is simply easy access to all documentation articles, and have them reviewed regularly. Google is nice for that targeted access to certain information. But personally, I sometimes also find a general overview of articles would be nice.

[DOC_Meraki]

I’ve never relied on using the in-built search function on either the Cisco or Meraki sites.  

Google is quicker and throws out better results