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Subject:Re: You Don't Need to Know How From:"chris anderson" <chris -at- bizmanuals -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 25 Jul 2001 11:55:11 -0500
to "know" is a relative concept...
One does need to know how a complex technology is engineered, designed or
built in order to use it effectively as a "user". The user's issues are
"process" problems and not engineering ones. What makes a VCR or medical
billing system "complex" are the steps required to actually use the product.
Whether my VCR has a flying erase head or not does not change the fact that
I want to record a program on my TV and I need to know what buttons to press
to capture the program.
New engineering may simplify the steps and therefore make it easier to use a
product but I do not need to know what the engineering is to obtain the ease
of use. I just need to know what the "new" steps are to achieve my intended
result.
Most people know very little about the devices they use -- Cars, VCRs, TVs,
Phone systems, etc. -- and yet they use them all the time, everyday, from
all walks of life and from all kinds of educational experience levels. And
yet these are very sophisticated devices with "complex" engineering.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that technical writing is about
communicating the "process" required to achieve a specific result and not
about making users expert at the technology deployed that allows us to
achieve a specific result .
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