Re: Manual and Online Help
The problem lay in the fact that the text, regardless of where and
how many times it appeared, was poorly-written and unhelpful. If it was
accurate, complete and helpful, then it would've been moot that it appeared
the same way four times--it would have helped you wherever you would have
looked for it.
This is the crux of the matter. We're all basically users of the same or similar tools we document. We've all experienced the "seething" when we seek a nugget of information and find only circuitous descriptions or half-baked, vague explanations that lead nowhere.
I'm guilty of it; I suspect we're each guilty of it---"it" being poorly written documentation, for whatever the reason. Personally, I think it's impossible to anticipate every type of question from every type of perspective that our readers are coming to our product with, regardless of how diligently we analyze our audience and their tasks. (That's why I scoff at the "software solutions" available on the market to automatically generate documentation. Think how rich *that* material must be, in whatever format.) Anyway, yes, the choice of delivery medium is important. But the basics are the basics, and all the tools and cool stuff in the world won't make up for inadequate information-gathering, poor writing, and lack of concern.
Peg
And that's why I think
"Technical writing... requires understanding the audience, understanding
what activities the user wants to accomplish, and translating the often
idiosyncratic and unplanned design into something that appears to make
sense."--Donald Norman, The Invisible Computer
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