Re: Documenting a "wizard"

Subject: Re: Documenting a "wizard"
From: Hannah Drake <hannah -at- formulatrix -dot- com>
To: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 8 May 2014 18:09:04 -0400

@ Kate -- well, we have a lot of ESL engineers and programmers, so
everything..and I mean everything (every little prompt, warning, error
message) goes through me. Ha! But yes, I'm probably spoiled in the amount
of control I have :) As far as the rest of the UI, we really only have one
other wizard, and it's not well documented. Currently, we don't print docs
for this program, since the User's Guide would be almost 500 8.5 x 11
pages. Instead, the programmers wrote an in-program "University" that walks
them through everything (in case you're wondering, I write all of those
tutorials and interface tours too). And you're right, I did already do the
hard work as far as writing out the text for this wizard!

@ Robert -- I think that will work. I can envision a checklist of what they
will need, or at least need to have in mind, so I suppose that could cover
it and make the opposing party happy. Incidentally, I'm also a fan of
"follow the on-screen prompts". Hehe.




On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 6:00 PM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>wrote:

> It's redundant. I provide a checklist of any information the wizard
> will ask for, doc how to start the wizard, say "follow the prompts on
> screen," and continue with any post-wizard tasks.
>
> On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Hannah Drake <hannah -at- formulatrix -dot- com>
> wrote:
> > Hey all,
> >
> > We are releasing a new wizard that walks a user through a process. The
> > other person thinks the wizard should be documented for the users. My
> > argument is it's redundant, because the wizard explains exactly what it
> is
> > IN the wizard itself (I know because I wrote the text and helped design
> the
> > wizard). I also pointed out that if we have to document the wizard, we
> > failed at creating a useful wizard.
>



--

*Hannah Drake *Documentation and Rock Maker Product Manager
[image: Office:] 781-788-0228 x137 | [image: Cell:] 617-610-6456 |
Skype*:* hannah.drake.formulatrix
[image: Formulatrix, Inc.]
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References:
Documenting a "wizard": From: Hannah Drake
Re: Documenting a "wizard": From: Robert Lauriston

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