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Re: Thinking like a user, or sticking to tried and true?

Subject: Re: Thinking like a user, or sticking to tried and true?
From: Joe Malin <jmalin -at- jmalin -dot- com>
To: David Castro <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:55:05 -0800

Will you use this document to _train_ techs on router settings, or instruct them how to copy settings? If it's just a procedures manual, then you should at the most put in a brief overview on the off-chance that someone may want one. If it's a training manual, then you might consider a larger overview.

All users, tech-heads or not, don't want to waste time reading an "overview" when they're trying to solve a particular problem. You may find, though, that the procedures require some overall knowledge of how the system works. For that, you need conceptual information, and therefore an overview.

For example, suppose that you're writing procedures for connecting up and programming a digital video recorder (DVR). If the DVR has one input type (for example, cable), one output type (for example, composite video), and one type of programming (date, start time, end time) then you can write the procedures without an overview, along the lines of "1. do this, 2. do that, 3. push button A".

Most DVRs, of course, have many more options. You present conceptual information so the user can decide what options he or she will be using, and then write the procedures assuming that the user has chosen (or can go back and choose) the desired options.

Joe

David Castro wrote:

I am working on a short document that is going to be used to train
some network technicians on how to copy settings from one router to
another. The documents that this document was based on have had an
overview section at the beginning. The document that was delivered to
me to edit & format didn't have any content in this section, but I
could fairly easily create content based on the rest of the document.


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References:
Thinking like a user, or sticking to tried and true?: From: David Castro

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