Re: Sloppy writing, sloppy thinking

["Michael West" <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

Jan Henning wrote:


> A task-oriented section [of a user guide]  is useful 
> for finding out how to achieve a particular goal, while a separate 
> reference section organized along the lines of the user interface is 
> useful for finding out what a particular element does. 

Yes, I pretty much agree, except that
online help and "tool-tips"  is often a
better vehicle for "explaining" the interface.
And often the interface doesn't really
need "explaining" so this type of cataloguing
often a kind of substitute for real, hands-on 
tech writing.

Maybe it's me, but I never have much
curiosity about what an interface object
"does" except as part of a workflow that
gets a task accomplished. If it doesn't 
help me do the task I'm trying to do,
then I don't care about it. Not now, anyway--
maybe I will next week when I'm trying to 
do something else.

As a user, I prefer to get a very high-level
overview of the interface, just enough for
me to develop a mental construct that characterizes
what the application can do and can't do. 
Beyond that point, I want instructions for
performing tasks. And I think this is a fairly
common user approach to a tool -- though
certainly not the only one. There *are* those
people who need to sit and read through a user 
manual before they do anything else. I think they are
the same people who always eat all their vegetables
and never drive over the speed limit.

--
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia





^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Robohelp X3, from eHelp, lets you quickly and easily create 
professional Help systems for all your Windows and Web-based 
applications, including Net. 

Order RoboHelp X3 in May and receive a $100 mail-in rebate, PLUS
free RoboScreenCapture and WebHelp Merge Module. 
 
Order RoboHelp today: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.