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Subject:Re: When is it too much information? From:Ryan Young <ryangyoung -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Ryan Pollack <ryan -at- clicksecurity -dot- com> Date:Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:06:40 -0800
The release notes at my new position have a section called "Deprecated
Features" as well as a section called "Changed Functionality." I feel like
that's not a bad idea. Seems like it would address situations like the one
described in the original post.
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 6:57 AM, Ryan Pollack <ryan -at- clicksecurity -dot- com>wrote:
> Ah, that is a really good idea. I second that! I do something similar in my
> release notes. I have these sections:
>
> - New
> - a
> - b
> - c
> - Changed
> - d
> - e
> - f
>
>
> - Fixed
> - g
> - h
> - i
> - Known Issues
> - j
> - k
> - l
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 12:36 AM, Debbie Hemstreet <
> D_Hemstreet -at- rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il> wrote:
>
> > I think you can best solve this problem by having a section:
> >
> > Deleted features:
> >
> > XXX information is no longer displayed in XXX location. The same
> > information can be found XXXX.
> >
> > In the release notes I write for one of my clients we go for redundancy.
> > Hence, for the above example, under NEW features, we would also have:
> >
> > XXX information is now accessible only via XXXX (and not in XXX
> location).
> >
> > So the user sees where to get the information but also knows that it is
> no
> > longer displayed in a certain spot. If a user was relying on the
> displayed
> > information, there will be a support call to find out where the heck the
> > information went to and how do I get it now.
> >
> > If there is no way to get the information that is no longer displayed --
> > bad move on the developers part and you need to point this out.
> >
> > Hope this contributes to the discussion
> >
> > Deborah
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: techwr-l-bounces+d_hemstreet=
> rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com[mailto:
> > techwr-l-bounces+d_hemstreet=rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> > Behalf Of yehoshua paul
> > Sent: Monday, 18 February, 2013 17:07 PM
> > To: tech2wr-l
> > Subject: When is it too much information?
> >
> > While reviewing the latest release notes that my company sends out every
> > couple of weeks, one of the support guys suggested that I add the
> following
> > words (or something similar) to one of the change descriptions: "The user
> > does not need to do anything." What changed is information that was
> > displayed in one area of the UI is no longer displayed. The support guy
> > thought the users might think they need to do something, now that they no
> > longer see this information.
> >
> > I told him, if the users needed to do something, I would write this in
> the
> > release notes like I did with some of the other changes, and include the
> > relevant steps, or the appropriate reference to the online help. If I
> > didn't write anything, why would the users think they need to do
> something?
> > His argument was that it doesn't hurt to add the sentence, and it may
> > prevent confused customers from calling customer support.
> >
> > What do you guys think? Would adding a superfluous sentence (in my
> > opinion) help or hinder users.
> >
> > Yehoshua
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>
> --
>
> Ryan Pollack
> Senior Technical Writer | Click Security
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> EPUB Webinar: Join STC Vice President Nicky Bleiel as she discusses tips
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>
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