RE: Bubble Your Pleasure, Bubble Your Fun

["Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com>]

 Connie Giordano wrote

> This presumes that consumer products are actually getting simpler for
> consumers to use... I for one don't buy that.  I've watched people (myself
> included) struggle to program their telephones, their VCRs, assemble
> furntiure and grills and so on, and not only is the documentation
> inadequate

But the question is, does any of this affect people's buying decisions? Are
people more information sensitive than they are price sensitive? I don't see
any evidence to suggest that they are. And if it doesn't contribute to the
bottom line, companies are not going to spend money to fix the docs.

> Back at the beginning of the year, CBS Sunday Morning did a report on the
> hot new career of technical writing... Which in essence said that because
> the things people use every day were becoming more complicated, this was
> going to be a booming field.

I think this is simply coming out too late in the cycle. The was the
situation in the 90's, for sure. But the fact is that things are getting
easier and easier to use. The push down of high end features into the low
end market may still be exposing new people to more complex interfaces, but
the low end is price sensitive and won't pay the additional money for good
docs.

And besides, it is the optional extra features that are complicated. The
basic functions that most of us want are pretty simple these days. And if we
do need the optional extras, we always know somebody who can figure out how
they work.

I keep coming back to this point, but I think it is vital to understanding
what is happening. The social context of information is vital. Most people
do not turn to documentation as their first resort. They turn to other
people. If you didn't know how to use you word processor back in 1987,
chances are nobody in your office knew either, and none of your friends
knew, and none of your kids knew. You were on your own and you needed those
docs. Today if you don't know how to use your word processor, the guy in the
next cubicle knows, and you friend down the street knows and your kid knows.
That's where you get your information.

This was the reason for the tech writing boom -- a temporary disruption in
the social fabric of information due to the rapid introduction of so many
new home/office products. Even if some products are still getting more
complicated, the social fabric of information has been restored. In fact,
the internet has significantly expanded and strengthened the social fabric
of information. You can always find someone who knows how to make stuff work
if you really need to. Good docs, therefore, are not a competitive advantage
anymore for most home/office products, and manufactures won't pay people big
buck to write them.

Technical communication is an industrial occupation again, and it will
remain so.
---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Writer
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com

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