Re: What's the point, indeed! (formerly site-license docs)

[Gretchen Miller <grm+ -at- ANDREW -dot- CMU -dot- EDU>]

>On the other hand, this might make you feel better: I did a survey
>of our users, which included questions about when and how people
>look for information. One of the options was "I ask a coworker"
>(I think most of us do this before consulting the manual). Some users
>at a large company, for reasons I don't understand, named the
>coworker they get their information from. Interestingly, everyone
>seemed to be asking the same person. When I looked at the Answer Grape's
>survey, guess what? Turns out this person is looking for information
>in the documentation *all the time*! I wonder why!!

Here are some possibilities:

1. Documentation often uses a specialized language to describe a
situation or procedure.  Most beginners are not willing to learn this
specialized language.  Therefore, they call someone who can describe a
situation or procedure in a language they are already familiar with.
Those who are willing to learn the language are the ones getting the
calls.  (This is as true of learning to sew as learning to use a
computer program; specialized work usually uses, and often needs a
specialized language to describe it efficiently.  That's why any group
of experts is incomprehensible to an outsider).  Maybe manuals use too
much of this specialized language...

2. People learn in different ways.  One person I work with says "I never
could learn something by reading it".  She'll never be comfortable using
a manual.  On the other hand, (as long as it's well indexed) I'd rather
try a manual first. I believe that reading information is probably one
of the least favorite forms for most people, even though it's one of the
most offered in this society.

toodles, gretchen