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Subject:Re: "Granny" instructions From:Krista van Laan <vanlaan -at- BILBO -dot- NTC -dot- NOKIA -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 14 Nov 1997 16:59:42 +0200
On Fri, 14 Nov 1997, Tracy Boyington wrote:
> Krista van Laan wrote:
>
> > I find that I'm not very confident about how much to
> > include. The customer seems to want _everything_ included -- they
> > even asked me to spell out all abbreviations and acronyms, even
> > though abbreviations are used in the menus and windows. (This does
> > not strike me as a simplification, but it indicates that they want
> > everything down to the nth detail.)
>
> It's not a simplification, but I personally like knowing what the
> abbreviations and acronyms stand for, because it often helps the whole
> system make more sense. Maybe that's what they had in mind. Or maybe
> they're just really anal retentive. ;-)
I'm not sure, which doesn't help. The definitions are included in the body
of the manual and also in a glossary at the end. But -- and I think this
may be a lack of understanding -- they're asking me to spell out stuff
that is never spelled out. Sort of as if I were writing about AT&T and
someone asked me to call it American Telephone and Telegraph each time.
>
> > I'm concerned that the procedures will be much too long. I really
> > dislike seeing 20- or 30-step procedures.
>
> No kidding. What about breaking your procedures into smaller chunks? For
> example, if I'm telling a nurse how to give an injection, my chunks will
> be:
>
> A. Wash your hands
> (several steps to wash your hands)
> B. Prepare the patient
> (several steps to prepare the patient)
> C. Draw up the injection
> (several steps to draw up the injection)
> D. Administer the injection
> (several steps)
> etc.
>
> This is especially helpful if some of the major steps (such as washing
> your hands) are repeated for other procedures, because if someone has
> already learned how to do that part they can skip to the next major
> step.
I'd love to figure out a good way to do that. One request was that I
repeat every step in each of 20 or so procedures, even though (using
the above example) only A and F might be different in each case, and
those, only slightly. But, a user might
one day do 5 different ones. Another time the same one 8 times in a row.
Another time a whole new set.
If they are new users, and totally unsure of how to do a complicated
procedure, AND it's in a language they're not really comfortable with,
maybe it is better to just simply repeat every step every time so they
don't have to turn any pages in case they a) didn't learn it the last
time they did it, or b) happen to be starting on this procedure this
day.
I guess it will take up a lot of pages no matter what.
========================================================================
Krista Van Laan Phone: 358 9 511 23684
Nokia Telecommunications Oy Fax: 358 9 511 23554
P.O. Box 320 Email: krista -dot- vanlaan -at- ntc -dot- nokia -dot- com
FIN-00045 NOKIA GROUP Finland Office: Hiomotie 5 FIN-00380 Helsinki
