RE: Evaluation Process - HATs

[Matt Moore <MMoore -at- ConnectWise -dot- com>]

I agree that content is what matters and on that note, we have toward the end of a rewrite of all of our documentation that will be about 3-4 times as much content...

What we have now looks very integrated into our site and "modern" and the worry is that going to the webhelp output will look like we went backwards.  Of course, there will be other great improvements because of the issues we have with the current solution.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Stone [mailto:rstone75 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com] 
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 2:08 PM
To: Matt Moore
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Evaluation Process - HATs

Hi Matt

Just an observation here, but have you or your company performed any real research on what your customers need or expect from your help?

My reason for asking is that you may discover that if you elect to switch to a more "modern" help output, they will become frustrated and angry as a result. Case in point is Microsoft. I hate Hate HATE the "new and supposedly *improved*" help they now supply with Office. I get this horrible experience that pulls from the web first. There is no Table of Contents or Index present to assist me in determining if I'm remotely in the right area for what I'm seeking help with. I see Adobe headed in an eerily similar direction with their "Community Help" abomination. I see reports from many of my Adobe Community Professional peers about how bad of a fail the help seems to be.

Sure it looks different and more "modern". But does that *REALLY* help anything or anyone if it fails to do the intended job?

As a user, I could care less how sexy the help looks. I want ANSWERS! 
Efficient, fast and helpful.

Just sayin... Rick :)

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