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Quoting Thomas Eagles <tekwriter -at- sympatico -dot- ca>:
> Methinks that perhaps there is good reason that the
> fine intentions of
> the alleged visionaries are ignored, or at least
> discarded. It seem
> everyone would LIKE to study their readers before
> writing for them. I'd
> guess that a small fraction of the companies that
> produce user docs
> actually DO analyze the audience first. That's not an
> issue for tech
> writers, but rather for product managers, VPs, and
> principals in
> companies -- those who have to justify the expenses.
> If companies don't
> want to spend money on user analysis, and if the user
> isn't interested
> in being analysed in the first place, then what can
> you do? Some of the
> user analysis I've seen over the years wasn't worth
> the time or effort
> invested. That's been my experience, anyway (FWIW).
Marketers and top executives are not interested in "users". They are interested in "customers". Not always the same thing. In many cases, the guy who actually has to use the software in some hot, tiny utility closet is NOT the guy who decided to buy it. When a company decides at the top level to buy enterprise-wide software and deploy it, often the guys in IT are not consulted on which software to get. However, they are required to use it. Assuming that the college-educated veep your marketing guy "interviewed" during product development is the same as the blue-collar cable modem installer who is installing it can be a very, very bad idea. That's why it's often better to pay more attention to what the tech support folks tell you, especially the ones who man the support phones.
--
Sarah Stegall
Technical Writer
sarah_stegall -at- dcprojects -dot- com
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