Re: If you could ask your users a question...

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

How about: can I watch you use the product to do a list of tasks that 
I'll give you?

The first time I managed to get some user feedback, I learned very 
quickly that what users said they wanted was often out of sync with what 
they actually did.

Beginning anthropology texts say that you need to know three things 
about any event:
- what participants say happen.
- what is supposed to happen.
- what happened.
The three are not necessarily the same, and the differences between them 
are often illuminating.

I like saying that tech-writers are anthropologists to geeks. I suppose 
that they're anthropologists to end-users, too - at least when doing 
usability testing.

So, I conclude that this basic advice to anthropology students is 
probably useful to tech-writers, too.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"I saw you, I met you, I had you, I lost you
Lucky I have no disease
I have a habit of taking things lightly
It keeps me off of my knees."
-The Mollys, "Holding On"


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