---
title: "Explore"
description: "Try the product and discover what it can do with a low barrier to entry."
doc_version: "2025-01-09"
last_updated: "2026-08-08"
canonical_url: "https://7act.org/actions/explore/"
language: "en"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Explore

Products are well designed when the barrier to usage is low. Great products invite the users to interact and try new things. Documentation should provide hints, instructions, and affordances that facilitate product exploration as one of the first activities.

Examples of docs that address exploration are [React's Quick start](https://react.dev/learn), [Yoksel's Flex cheat sheet](https://yoksel.github.io/flex-cheatsheet/), and the [Tour of Go](https://go.dev/tour/welcome/1). This kind of documentation has a playful, inviting quality. They are the perfect ground for innovative formats blending user interaction and documentation.

Docs that promote exploration are engaging and fun, the perfect entrance for someone interested in getting the feel of a product before deepening their knowledge. Together with the Appraise and Understand actions, Explore sits at the beginning of the documentation's path.


## What the user wants to do

Great products invite users to interact and try new things. Documentation should provide hints, instructions, and affordances that facilitate exploration as one of the first activities.

## Signals that your docs miss it

- New users cannot find a quick start or a sandbox to try the product.
- The first-run experience is a wall of reference, not a guided tour.
- Users must read a full manual before they can touch the product.

## Two examples in the wild

- [React Quick Start](https://react.dev/learn)
- [Tour of Go](https://go.dev/tour/welcome/1)

## Common content types

- DITA: <task>, <step>, <substep>
- Diataxis: Tutorial
- Good Docs Project: Tutorial

## One metric

time-to-first-value — Time from first visit to a successful first interaction.

## Sitemap

- [Seven-Action Documentation Model](https://7act.org/index.md)
- [Introduction](https://7act.org/rationale/index.md)
- [Actions](https://7act.org/actions/index.md)
- [Appraise](https://7act.org/actions/appraise/index.md)
- [Understand](https://7act.org/actions/understand/index.md)
- [Explore](https://7act.org/actions/explore/index.md)
- [Practice](https://7act.org/actions/practice/index.md)
- [Remember](https://7act.org/actions/remember/index.md)
- [Develop](https://7act.org/actions/develop/index.md)
- [Troubleshoot](https://7act.org/actions/troubleshoot/index.md)
- [Glossary](https://7act.org/glossary/index.md)
- [Seven-Action Documentation skill](https://7act.org/skill/index.md)