atw: Re: Research on when customers need or want online help or manuals?
- From: Michael Lewis <mlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 22:46:43 +1100
Well put, Stuart.
When I first started working in Technical Communication about 30 years
ago, my chief "selling point" was that documentation is part of the
product - not an optional extra. If you want to think in terms of
computer software, you could say that the documentation is an extension
of the user interface, in precisely the terms described by Stuart. If
your product is (say) a washing machine or a video recorder, the
documentation _is_ the user interface, because you can't put all the
relevant information on the fascia surrounding the knobs and buttons.
Now that I've retired, I just let off steam when I see bad manuals.
Recent examples:
1. An ice cream maker that leaves you scratching your head: do I put the
mixture into the bucket and then put the bucket into the machine before
or after I perform the "pre-cool" process? Strangely, the manufacturer's
representative doesn't seem to know . . .
2. An oven that really needs the door to be removed before you can
adequately clean the inside: no mention of how to do that, or even
whether you can do it at all, though the people who installed a
replacement unit (under warranty) were able to explain it in a matter of
seconds . . .
In short, practical experience demonstrates the need for the
documentation. Next problem: users are so accustomed to poor
documentation that they don't expect it to answer their questions. No
easy way around that one that I have found.
- Michael Lewis
On 2014/12/17 18:06, Stuart Burnfield wrote:
Hi Catherine. I don't know of any empirical proof that we need Help or
videos or manuals as things separate from the product.
I find this a useful way to think of documentation:
I, the user/customer, want to accomplish something. Let's say I want
to transfer some money internationally. Ideally, I open the software
or web application and just fill in all the necessary information.
It's just a list of fields but I know what to do and the money is sent
securely and correctly as intended. I don't need to ask any questions,
guess at the meaning of any fields or take any unnecessary steps. The
UI is so well defined and the transaction so well understood that it's
just obvious.
In practice, we know that's rarely the case except for very trivial
applications. People need information to help them fill out the form
correctly for their personal situation. It might be my hundredth money
transfer or my first. I might be nervous around computers, or a
visitor and unfamiliar with the local banking jargon. If every bit of
potentially useful information were provided in the form itself, it
would be as dense and as long as the phone book.
We need to make this additional information selectively available as
users need it. Putting it in the form is cheap but the available space
is limited. 'Space' in the form of help files, manuals and videos is
practically unlimited but it's expensive to produce and time-consuming
and probably frustrating for the user. If they can't find the answer
there, they have to phone or email your support desk or angrily swear
off your company forever--both even more expensive options.
So the empirical proof you want is the percentage of your clients who
can successfully complete transactions with the aid of Help, videos
and manuals versus the percentage that are successful without them.
You need to test and observe /your /customers doing representative
transactions.
Regards,
Stuart
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