TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
When I tell people what I do for a living, I ALWAYS get a 5 minute rant
about the last product the person bought that they couldn't figure out how
to use and the manual didn't help. The AAA man who fixed my flat, the
postman who delivered my brother the other day, the people at Mail Boxes
Etc. I apologized and tried to be helpful. I felt bad and partly
responsible.
Now I tell them to take the product back. Call the company and tell them
what you are doing and why. Tell them the manual was so
bad/complicated/missing/other that you can't use the product. Write a
letter. Keep taking products back and telling companies why you are doing it
until you find that 1 that has a good manual. And then call them and tell
them why you are keeping their product.
I am trying to instigate a revolt. There is NO reason why we should not have
good, usable manuals with every product we spend our money on. Zero reason.
Bad manuals show a lack of concern and outright contempt on the
manufacturers part for the people they are selling the product to. That is
us, kids.
We as consumers don't have to put up with this and we can fix it. The one
thing we have control of in the market place is where we spend our dollars.
And purchasing products BECAUSE they have a decent manual is one way we can
do just that.
My opinion on a lazy, slow, doc plan thinking sort of day.
Unfortunately, few companies seem to keep the kinds of records of technical
support calls necessary to shake out the actual customer experience problems
due to inadequate documentation...or to the *lack* of problems when that
documentation is upgraded.
Technical workers and users of all kinds have become so jaded by poor
documentation, I'm afraid, that many don't even bother doing more than
skimming it (if that) before determining it is "more of the same"...after
which they often traipse to their local bookstore or online bookseller to
*buy* third party manuals.
Perhaps we could start a trend among tech writers of commenting vociferously
to companies that produce software with inadequate documentation! At least
there'd be *one* customer group who might make an impact!
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or view a live demo at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3
---
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.
