help center image refresh workflow: update real screenshots and conceptual illustrations separately

A help center image refresh workflow should begin with an inventory, not a blanket request for new images. Some visuals are real screenshots that must match the product. Others are conceptual illustrations that may still communicate the right idea after the interface changes. Review those categories separately.

Genace can help create replacement illustrations. It does not capture your current interface or verify a support procedure. Screenshot capture, procedure testing, annotations, editing, and publication remain responsibilities of your documentation workflow.

Inventory images by purpose

Record the document section, image role, source method, product version, language, and current derivative. Mark whether the visual is essential to completing the procedure or merely provides context.

Link each screenshot to the actual step it supports. A filename such as settings-new does not explain which procedure becomes wrong when a button moves. The inventory should let an editor find all images dependent on a changed feature.

Choose the appropriate refresh action

Finding	Correct action	Avoid
Real control moved	Recapture from the current product	Generating a plausible replacement screen
Label changed	Verify procedure and update capture	Retouching words without testing behavior
Concept unchanged	Review caption and relevance	Regenerating solely for novelty
Illustration implies absent feature	Revise or remove concept	Hiding the mismatch with styling
Export unreadable	Recreate a delivery derivative	Repeating the whole generation process

Use the current application as the authority for interface evidence. If access to the relevant state is unavailable, mark the screenshot task blocked rather than inventing the missing screen.

Refresh with a narrow scope

Test the procedure first, then capture the required interface state. Add deterministic annotations if needed, keeping them distinct from the actual product pixels. For conceptual artwork, write a new brief only when the idea or visual requirements have changed.

Inspect the final display size. A support image needs enough detail for the reader to locate the relevant control, but it should not force every visitor to download an unnecessarily large master. Create reviewed derivatives through your own post-processing pipeline.

Check the accompanying explanation and text equivalent. W3C’s informative-image guidance supports planning how the image’s meaning connects to nearby text. Do not assume a new picture fixes outdated instructions.

Publish and track dependencies

Create a new asset revision, attach the procedure check, and update the document mapping. Preserve the old version for historical context where your retention policy permits. If several documents reuse the same image, verify each usage rather than assuming all captions are interchangeable.

Keep the refresh queue tied to product changes. A small review after a relevant release is easier to manage than a large unexplained replacement campaign months later.

Acceptance checklist

Verify the procedure in the real application, confirm source method, inspect annotations and crop, and read the surrounding instructions. Check every reuse and ensure no synthetic image is presented as an actual screenshot of the current product.

Read documentation illustrations, asset lineage, and file-size budgets.

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