atw: Re: Research on when customers need or want online help or manuals?
- From: "Catherine" <catg@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:16:30 -0800
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your thoughtful replies. I’m faced with an organization that wants
to justify everything & because they haven’t invested in great Help, they
believe they don’t need it.
I found some great ROI information on the UK Cherryleaf site. Someone had done
a study showing how many less support calls you get if your Help really helps!
http://www.cherryleaf.com/consultancy-services-in-user-assistance-and-documentation/support-call-cost-reduction-calculator/
But management wants more! Yes, they consider the manuals as ‘extras’ and some
of the most foolish have bought into the notion that no matter how complex the
software, there is an ‘intuitive design’ that will make the user have a
‘Eureka’ moment… J Which isn’t true for complex systems…
When I wrote manuals for the oil and gas industry many years ago, my managers
said (publically) count on a Grade 9 reading level and (privately) the
attention span of a cocker spaniel. Intuitive design can only help somewhat in
the real human world of users.
So I’m still on the search for more actual data. I would love to survey my
users but in a financial systems atmosphere, so far I haven’t been allowed to
do that.
Sincerely,
Catherine Girczyc
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob T
Sent: December 20, 2014 4:39 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Research on when customers need or want online help or
manuals?
I agree with Christine that good design of the original product is often
ignored.
I know a good industrial designer who has just walked away from the profession.
On the other hand, it seems hat Apple take good basic design very seriously,
especially if you read the woofle in the books about Steve Jobs and the company.
I found that a user manual that described step by step worked well. It worked
better if the comments and support bits were notes between the steps.
That enabled use by skilled users who could ignore the comments, and also use
by less skilled and new users who needed the notes and comments.
One page for each process helps new users. It avoids them getting distracted
by what is in effect sales blurb about some "exciting" feature.
I rewrote a user guide for my mum
1 - How to record a show with a new disk
2 - How to record a show with a used disk
3 - How to record a show later in the day - new disk
4 - How to record a show later in the day - used disk
5 - how to fornat a new disk
6 - how to format a used disk
......... you get the idea.
Bob Trussler
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