How to Create a Knowledge Base with No-Code

Creating a knowledge base is essential for any organization looking to provide quick, easy access to information for employees, customers, or users. However, building one from scratch can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’re not a developer. That’s where no-code platforms come in. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about building an effective knowledge base with Knack’s no-code platform.

Key Takeaways

• A knowledge base is a centralized, organized repository of information designed to help users quickly find answers to common questions or access important resources.
• A knowledge base improves efficiency, enhances user experience, reduces support load, and provides 24/7 access to essential information.
• No-code platforms allow you to create a fully customized and functional knowledge base using intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, pre-built components, robust data management, and seamless integration.

What is a Knowledge Base?

A knowledge base is a centralized repository of information that is organized and accessible to users, typically designed to help them find answers to common questions or access important resources quickly. It can include articles, FAQs, guides, troubleshooting steps, and other relevant documentation, making it an essential tool for both customer support and internal team collaboration. By providing a self-service platform, a knowledge base empowers users to solve problems on their own, reduces the need for direct support, and ensures that information is consistently available and up-to-date.

Why Every Business Needs a Knowledge Base

By centralizing essential information and making it easily accessible, a knowledge base streamlines communication, enhances efficiency, and improves the overall experience for everyone involved. Here’s how a well-organized knowledge base can benefit your organization:

For Your Team:

• Improved Efficiency: Provides quick access to critical information, reducing the time spent searching for answers and allowing team members to focus on their core tasks.
• Consistent Information: Ensures that everyone has access to the same, up-to-date information, reducing the risk of errors and miscommunication.
• Enhanced Onboarding: Serves as a valuable resource for new employees, helping them get up to speed more quickly by accessing training materials and company procedures.
• Streamlined Collaboration: Facilitates better collaboration by providing a shared space where team members can contribute and access collective knowledge.

For Your Customers:

• Self-Service Support: Empowers customers to find answers to their questions without needing to contact support, leading to faster issue resolution and greater satisfaction.
• 24/7 Availability: Offers customers access to information anytime, reducing the dependency on support hours and providing help when they need it most.
• Reduced Support Load: Decreases the volume of repetitive inquiries, allowing your support team to focus on more complex issues that require personal attention.
• Enhanced User Experience: Improves the overall customer experience by providing clear, organized, and easily accessible information that helps them get the most out of your products or services.

Preparation for Building a Knowledge Base

Before building your knowledge base, you need to prepare by understanding your audience’s needs, setting clear goals, and choosing the right no-code tool.

Research and  Understand Your Audience’s Needs

Conducting thorough research before creating your knowledge base is crucial to ensure it effectively meets the needs of your audience. Understanding your audience’s specific needs helps you tailor the content to address their most common challenges and questions, making the knowledge base more relevant and useful. 

Analyzing frequent customer queries helps you identify the topics that require the most attention, ensuring that the most pressing issues are covered in detail. Additionally, reviewing competitors’ knowledge bases can provide valuable insights into industry standards, highlight potential gaps in your own content, and inspire best practices that you can incorporate into your knowledge base to make it stand out.

Set Clear Goals and Boundaries for Your Knowledge Base

Your knowledge base should have a clear mission that guides its content and structure, ensuring that it aligns with your organization’s broader goals. For example, if your mission is to improve customer satisfaction, your knowledge base might focus on providing detailed, easy-to-follow solutions to common problems. Defining your knowledge base’s mission and establishing clear objectives are critical steps in creating a resource that truly serves its intended purpose.

Choose the Right No-Code Tool to Create Your Knowledge Base

Selecting the right no-code tool is a pivotal step in creating an effective and efficient knowledge base. The right no-code platform should offer ease of use, flexibility in design, and robust features that allow you to organize and manage content efficiently. Additionally, it should integrate seamlessly with your existing systems and scale as your knowledge base grows.

Knack is an excellent choice for building a knowledge base with no-code technology. Known for its powerful database capabilities and user-friendly interface, Knack allows you to create a highly customized and organized knowledge base without needing any programming skills. It offers flexibility in how you structure and display information, ensuring that your knowledge base meets your specific requirements.

Knack’s drag-and-drop builder makes it easy to design intuitive layouts, while its robust data management features allow you to categorize and filter content effectively. Additionally, Knack’s strong search functionality and ability to integrate with other tools make it a versatile solution that can grow with your organization. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Knack provides the tools you need to build a knowledge base that is both scalable and user-centric.

How to Create Your Knowledge Base with Knack (No-Code)

Let’s dive into creating a knowledge base with Knack’s no-code platform. We’ve created a step-by-step guide below, but please feel free to visit our knowledge base and developer documentation for more guidance.

1. Sign up for Knack in Seconds

If you don’t already have a Knack account, you’ll need to sign up for one to follow this tutorial. Don’t worry—it comes with a 14-day free trial to help you get started. Sign up for Knack using these steps:

Go to knack.com

1. Click the “Start Building for Free” button in the top right corner.
2. Enter your email address and create a password.
3. Click “Create Account.”

2. Create Your  Knowledge Base App

Once you’ve created an account, it’s time to start building your app. You can build from scratch or use our AI assistant. For this tutorial, we’ll guide you through building your app from scratch.

1. Once you’re logged in, you’ll be automatically redirected to the app builder. In the center of the page, you’ll see a section labeled “Create a New App.” Select “New App.”
2. From the pop-up, choose “Blank App,” then “Create New App.”
3. Click on the words “Untitled App” in the top left corner of the screen. In that box, type a relevant name for your knowledge base, such as “[Company Name] Learning Center.”

3. Build Your Database Structure and Connections

Next, you have to add tables to your app. These tables are comprised of fields to organize and store your data. Here’s how to create tables in your Knack app:

1. Select “+ Add a Table.”
2. Decide whether you want to import information from a CSV file, Excel file, or Google spreadsheet, build your table from scratch, or choose a template table. For this guide, choose “From Scratch” in the top left corner.
3. Give your table a relevant name, such as “Articles.”
4. Decide what fields you want in your table. Fields are the categories of information you’ll store in each table and how users can enter information. For example, if you’re creating an Articles Table, you may want fields like Article Name (short text), Publish Date (date/time), Author (short text), Department (multiple choice), and Topic (short text).

Once you’ve finished making your tables, you can establish connections between them for organization, searchability, and synchronized updates.

1. Go to the table you want to connect.
2. Click the purple + button to the right of the table.
3. Choose the table you want to connect it to from the dropdown menu and click next.
4. Choose their relationship (how you want them to interact with each other).
5. Click “Add Connection.”

4. Set Up Pages for Viewing and Managing Content

With your data structure in place, you can now create the pages users will access to view and manage knowledge base content. We recommend adding pages for categories (topics and/or relevant departments), articles, and admin (a place for approved users to upload and manage content). Here’s how to add and set up your knowledge base pages:

1. Click “Pages” in the menu on the left-hand side of the app builder.
2. In the center of the screen, click “+ Add a Page.”
3. In the menu on the left, choose whether you want your page to be public (accessible to anyone with the URL) or private (accessible by those with specific login credentials). If this page will be for customers, making the page public is the best choice. If it’s strictly for employees or admin, it should be made private.
4. In the same menu, give your page a relevant name, such as “Topic Categories,” then click “Add Page.”
5. Next, you need to add views to your page. Views dictate how information will be displayed. In the center of the page, select “+ Add a View.”
6. From the menu on the left, choose what type of view you want to add. For example, you may want to choose the List view for the Topic Categories page.
7. Using the same menu, decide which table (described as “record” in the menu) this view will pull information from. For a Topic Categories page, you’ll likely want the view to display your Categories Table. Select the right table from the list and click “Continue.”
8. Click “Add [View Type]” to finish adding the view to your page.

5. Add Other Users

To protect sensitive information and for individuals to use your knowledge base effectively, you must create user roles and set their permissions. You can do this using these steps:

1. Navigate to the “Data” tab on the left side of the app builder.
2. Click “Enable User Roles.”
3. Click “+ Add User Role.”
4. Choose user roles carefully because they dictate who has access to what within the knowledge base. For an internal knowledge base, we recommend user roles like admin and employees. If some departments need access to sensitive information that other departments don’t, you can create specific user roles for each department.
5. Once you’ve created all the necessary user roles, click “Add Roles and Enable Users.”
6. Navigate to the “Pages” tab on the left side of the app builder.
7. Click the dropdown arrow next to the name of the page for which you want to change user permissions.
8. Click “Require Login.”
9. Choose whether you want all users with login credentials to be able to access the page or only specific user roles. For this example, click “Limit permissions to specific user roles.”
10. Select the user roles you want to give access to the page from the dropdown menu, then click “Add a Login.”

7. Test and Launch Your Knowledge Base

Before going live, thoroughly test your knowledge base to ensure it functions as intended. The two biggest aspects you should test are:

• Navigation: Ensure users can navigate smoothly through categories and articles.
• Permissions: Confirm that access controls work as intended, with public and private content correctly separated.

Final Tips

As you finalize your knowledge base with Knack, here are a few key tips to ensure it’s as effective and user-friendly as possible:

• Leverage Knack’s Customization Features: One of the standout features of Knack is its ability to be fully customized to match the look and feel of your brand. Take advantage of this by incorporating your brand’s colors, fonts, and logo into the design. A cohesive visual identity not only enhances user experience but also reinforces brand consistency across your organization’s digital presence.
• Ensure Articles Are Well-Tagged and Titled: To make your knowledge base easily navigable, it’s essential to tag and title your articles thoughtfully. Use clear, descriptive titles that accurately reflect the content of each article. Tagging articles with relevant keywords will improve searchability, allowing users to find the information they need quickly and efficiently.
• Enable User Feedback: Knack allows you to create forms for users to submit feedback on articles. Implementing this feature can be incredibly valuable in refining your knowledge base over time. By collecting user input on the clarity, usefulness, and completeness of your articles, you can identify areas for improvement and ensure that your knowledge base remains a dynamic, evolving resource.
• Prioritize Data Security: Protecting sensitive information is paramount, especially if your knowledge base includes internal resources. Knack offers robust security features, including encryption and customizable access controls, to safeguard your data. Ensure that all employee and company information is securely stored and that only authorized personnel can access sensitive content.

Templates to Get Started Quicker

We try to make it extremely easy to get a foundation for your custom software application to make the process of utilizing Knack features even simpler. Template applications are application templates that start from and expedite much of the process to meet specific use cases and business needs. 

Here are a few others to consider:

1. Bug Tracker Template: If you’re looking to create a knowledge base, you may want to incorporate a bug-tracking system as part of your knowledge base. This would allow customers and Users to submit defects or issues with the software that you can solve and then put into your knowledge base.
2. IT Help Desk Template: Similar to the Bug Tracker template, creating a help desk ticking solution can help your support teams address those active and open defects in your software solution. And then incorporate those solutions into help desk articles to better assist customers with their own self-serve needs.

Build Your Knowledge Base With Knack Today

Creating a knowledge base with no-code tools like Knack empowers you to build a comprehensive, user-friendly resource for any industry without extensive technical expertise. Whether you’re supporting internal teams or assisting customers, a well-crafted knowledge base is an invaluable asset that grows with your organization and continually adapts to meet evolving demands.

Ready to see how no-code can help you create a knowledge base? Sign up with Knack and start building for free today!