Focus on decisions, not tasks

I write about German bureaucracy, and I wholeheartedly agree with your approach.

Most of my guides start with: what this is, who needs to do this, why you need to do this. If you don’t confirm that people are on the right page doing the right thing for the right reasons, they can go really far in the wrong direction.

Most government websites don’t explain any of this. They just tell you what they want from you to complete the part of the task that concerns them. They don’t bother to treat the task as part of a bigger decision. They just assume that you are here because you know what you are doing.

Re your last paragraph, the UK gov website excels at this. There are landing pages which describe the process, then warnings and caveats, then you can actually fill in the forms.

Eg this is the Google result for renewing your driving licence https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence - click Start Now and you'll see what I mean

As a "power user" this can sometimes feel like it gets in the way but I understand they need to consider everyone

UK gov website is great. It looks great and accessible too.

Yes! I draw a lot of inspiration from them. They really set the standard.

This is a really good approach I wish more technical docs had. My mind is always questioning why things are done a certain way, which leads me to side quests that slow me down.

> If you don’t confirm that people are on the right page doing the right thing for the right reasons

Based on this comment I think you would appreciate Every Page Is Page One a lot. The basic idea is that people can and will land on any random page of your docs site, so every page needs to quickly ground them and make it super easy for them decide whether they're on the right path or no. That's where the book title is coming from. Literally any page of your site might be page one for a user.

That’s exactly how I design my content! I work really hard on making sure that every entry point leads to the right path. It’s surprisingly challenging.

Thank you for the book recommendation. I will give it a look.