User feedback / meeting the readers etc.

[Chris Gooch <Chris -at- lightwork -dot- co -dot- uk>]

(Sort of related to the current poll question discussion.)

We put a page in the back of our manuals which has a quick
questionnaire on the documentation for readers to fill in and
send back, questions like "do you feel the manual is
pitched at the right level technically?", "how do you rate
the use of examples" and so on.

We've done this for years - it seemed like a good idea
at the time - but AFAIK we've had no questionnaires
returned whatsoever. None at all. Zilch.

Now, clearly this means that our manuals are perfect :-)
but I was wondering if anyone else had ever managed to
elicit such feedback succesfully. Maybe if we offered a
free T-shirt or something?

I do get some feedback from 'internal' users, as all our
manuals are read and used by the developers and support
staff here -- one trick I have learnt is that if you can get
any new staff to read the manuals as they are learning
about the product in their first few weeks, they're the
next best thing to a tame user.

Christopher Gooch, Technical Author
LightWork Design Ltd, Sheffield, England.
chris -at- lightwork -dot- co -dot- uk   www.lightwork.com





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