atw: Re: Reliance on super-users, manuals, etc [WAS: Time for another debate?]
- From: "Warren Lewington" <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 10:24:36 +1000
I have a reply to this on my Siemens machine. It follows on from where you
went with the Adobe help the other day. I'm going to enjoy the responses
when I send it tomorrow...
OH For anyone on the list, who has access to AutoCAD users, hijack their
computers for ten minutes and have a look at the Help systems in AutoCAD
NOW. Extraordinary. Very good. Almost useful!
Regards;
Warren
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Marnell
Sent: Wednesday, 27 May 2009 09:05
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Reliance on super-users, manuals, etc [WAS: Time for another
debate?]
Caz mentioned the way of help in the future might well be through the advice
of super-users. That's worked for me on occasion ... but not always. I
recently asked MS Word's help facility a simple question (to do with
watermarks). Instead of Microsoft offering the answer, I was directed to a
user forum. And what did I get? Contradictory answers (and let's not mention
the almost unintelligible language). An hour wasted trying both so-called
answers, and I gave up in frustration and relied instead on the
experimentation of willing colleagues. Another hour or so wasted before the
solution took shape. Multiply that cumulative waste by the many users who
have no doubt asked the same question and the result would well and truly
out-balance the effort a Microsoft technical writer would have taken to add
the answer to the MS online help.
Reliance on super-users sounds great, but there are two important
assumptions involved: that they really are super-users, and that they know
how to communicate their knowledge. Or put it another way, it assumes that
they are technical writers ;-) Long live the technical writer.
Which brings me back to a point I raised on this list a few months back: if
users are not using our traditional offerings (online help, user guides,
etc) but are seeking alternatives in wikis, user forums and the like, is it
because our traditional delivery mechanisms have been superseded? Or is it
because the usability and spread of the content in our traditional offerings
has been continually corroded by a bean-counter approach to meeting user
needs.
It may once again be time to remind industry of the value of our profession.
Geoffrey Marnell
Principal Consultant
Abelard Consulting Pty Ltd
T: +61 3 9596 3456
F: +61 3 9596 3625
W: <http://www.abelard.com.au/> www.abelard.com.au
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