Re: my bad displays habit

[John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Don't get me wrong...if I have a procedure of X number of steps, I
won't include the results for every step...only if the state of what
they see changes, either a new screen, actionable dialog, etc.

if nothing visible changes, there is nothing to describe.

I've also, for the last two years been doing online help topics and
now, knowledgebase material for Vonage customers and phone
customer/technical support personal.

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 2:10 PM,  <jennysubs -at- mac -dot- com> wrote:
> Just to provide yet another way to say this...
>
> I worked where the company style was to say "You see the XYZ dialog" if you felt it was important to tell them what they were seeing.
>
> It did keep the focus on the reader rather than the program. I found it a bit awkward at first, but got used to it.
>
> 1. Click the Big Red button.
>
>    You see the Big Red dialog box.
>
> 2. Type .....
>
> Now, I usually just don't tell them. Depends on the audience though. I write mostly for geeks, who are annoyed by the obvious.
>
> Jenny
>
>
>
> On Mar 2, 2010, at 10:32 AM, John Posada wrote:
>
>> I'm in the camp of including the results.
>>
>> It's not that my users are surprised that "something" displays...it's
>> that I want them to know that the right thing displayed.
>>
>> The way I see it, if you don't tell them what should be displayed,
>> then ANYTHING that displays is the correct thing to display.
>>
>
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-- 
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
NYMetro STC President
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