atw: Re: Time for another debate?
- From: "Geoffrey Marnell" <geoffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 21:21:24 +1000
Thanks Caz. I appreciate your response. You might have had little use for
user guides past the training room, but (as you say) many industries cannot
but rely on user guides. For instance, all our naval ships (and subs) have
on-board paper user guides. Moreover, you can't rely on super-users (sorry,
Hedlicker) for help when (a) no users will be passionate enough about the
product to provide user assistance, (b) the product is new or (c) when
serious harm might result from poor documentation.
And very few purchasers of consumer products get training in the product.
Those who do might throw away the user guide after training (as you
suggest), but most just don't get to do any training.
I'll catch up with your postings over the next week or so.
Cheers
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
_____
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Caz.H
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:40 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Time for another debate?
Sorry, this is petty of me: "'Divert all your calls to Voicemail' - as
opposed to diverting someone else's calls? Ugh!
Geoffrey - in truth, out here in the real world, I increasingly rely on good
hearted superusers who give time to share their knowledge and solve user
problems, all for free, and with a great deal more relevance than most
manuals or online help.
Simple example: I would almost never go to MS to solve an MS problem when I
know a down to earth, clear resolution is waiting to be found somewhere else
on the Internet, written by a superuser (once upon a time known as 'geeks').
Usually there are entire threads on the most minor of matters, suggesting
that hundreds of other people have had the same problem and come away from
manuals and official user help material empty handed.
That's the way of the future for user support or how-to-help: professional
or amateur superusers sharing their knowledge, just for the love of it, much
in the way Wikipedia has evolved, the difference being that the material is
disbursed all over the web, not collated in one location and not policed.
Not hard to find though, unless your problem is truly new or obscure, in
which case one would post a new thread and sit back and wait for experts to
post their suggestions.
Having said that, and despite spending many years working in the IT
industry, I wouldn't claim that I've ever worked in an industry that uses
manuals for anything. None. At all.
Everything is by osmosis. When formal training occurs, no-one seriously
spends time with the manual after the event, maybe the first few days, after
that, it's all learning as you go, and trouble shooting by the seat of your
pants, or word of mouth.
I don't work in the type of industries that other people here do, where
manuals are quite a big deal. One imagines that employees don't know,
intuitively, how to build a car or repair a submarine, so having manuals is
a beaut, if somewhat old fashioned concept.
Can't argue with your example about index use. Much the same way as one
would use a recipe book: straight to the index, no use dithering at the
contents pages.
Sorry for hodge-podge comments, have been tardy in responding & am running
on a few too many sparkling whites to pull together meaningful thoughts.
Just wanted to get back to you before I forgot entirely.
C
Sorry, this is petty of me: "'Divert all your calls to Voicemail' - as
opposed to diverting someone else's calls? Ugh!
Geoffrey - in truth, out here in the real world, I increasingly rely on good
hearted superusers who give their time to sharing skills and solving user
problems, all for free, and with a great deal more relevance than any manual
or online help.
Simple example: I would almost never go to MS to solve an MS problem when I
know a down to earth, clear resolution is waiting to be found somewhere else
on the Internet, written by a superuser (once upon a time known as 'geeks')
who is happy to help others. Usually there are entire threads on the most
minor of matters, signifying that hundreds of other people have had the same
problem and come away from manuals and official user help material empty
handed.
That's the way of the future for user support: professional or amateur
superusers sharing their knowledge, just for the love of it, much in the way
Wikipedia has evolved, the only difference being that the material is
disbursed all over the web. Not hard to find though, unless your problem is
truly new or obscure, in which case, I imagine one would post a new thread
and sit back and wait for experts to post their suggestions.
Having said that, and despite spending many years working in the IT
industry, I wouldn't claim that I've ever worked in an industry that uses
manuals, for anything. None. At all. Everything is by osmosis. When
formal training occurs, no-one seriously spends time with the manual after
the event, maybe the first few days, after that, it's all learning as you
go.
I don't work in the type of industries that other people here clearly do,
where manuals are quite a big deal. One imagines that employees don't know,
intuitively, how to build a car or repair a submarine, so having manuals is
a beaut, if somewhat old fashioned concept.
Can't argue with your example about index use. Much the same way as one
would use a recipe book; straight to the index, no use dithering at the
contents pages.
Other related posts:
