Comments on: Can online help show “read wear?”

By: » Can online help show “read wear?” | just write click Writer River

» Can online help show “read wear?” | just write click Writer River — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:25:50 +0000

[...] Can online help show “read wear?” | just write click. Stumble it! [...]

By: annegentle

annegentle — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:07:03 +0000

Ratings do help a lot, good point Charles. I was purposely vendor-free with this post, but commenters may do as they please with comments.

Adrian, I feel like I get into paralysis by analysis phase with my blog all the time! LOL Time since last viewed is an interesting metric! I think I’ll see if I can track that on our helpsite somehow, thanks for the idea.

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:18:54 +0000

Forgot to add that Feedback Service also has a rating system in it… So that’s a good indicator of wear right there.

http://madcapsoftware.com/products/feedback/

By: Charles

Charles — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 07:17:36 +0000

I use MadCap Flare, and what I do to indicate wear is to use their Browse Sequences and create a ‘three clicks to freedom’ type of front page.
http://madcapsoftware.com

Also, what helps is the Feedback Service they started last year. I reviewed it in two of my blog posts…
http://charlesjeter.com/2007/10/04/

You get the picture. The Web 2.0 features in the Feedback Service allow users to post their own comments.

I also think this should be something that the MadCap guys and gals address – I’ll put a link out for them to check it and see what they think about adding it. It would be sort of cool for the Feedback Service to automatically put it up there in a php-like frame or window which updates automatically.

By: Adrian McEwen

Adrian McEwen — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:19:08 +0000

I think indicating wear is a great idea, and one I’ve been planning on trying out when I do my grand-blog-redesign. Although that’s probably part of the reason why my grand-blog-redesign project is about three years late in starting…

I’d add a time-since-last-viewed indicator to the mix too. Kind of like the dust that would build up one something if you hadn’t used it for a while, but would get removed when someone paid a visit to that page.

By: annegentle

annegentle — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:29:43 +0000

Hi Cat, I love my 1%ers! (Is that a word or a text message?)

What a great idea – instead of writers having to tag topics based on an intended audience (which is usually an educated guess), just use the online ID that a readers uses to peruse your help site, figure out their job title from that, and see which topics match up to the job title most often. I think you’re on to something!

By: one man writes » Recently Read

one man writes » Recently Read — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:02:57 +0000

[...] Can online help show “read wear?” Anne Gentle ponders on how best to show the online help topics which have the most traffic, and comes up with some interesting ideas: “You could … show the most searched-for terms when the user searches. Concepts may be more easily connected when you understand what others were searching for.” [...]

By: Cat Mc

Cat Mc — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:11:28 +0000

Hey, am I becoming one of your noisy 1%?

I think your list is good. If I had really sophisticated tools, I’d add some weight for topic placement too. An obscure topic that’s getting lots of long-lasting views is more worth highlighting!

That made me think, what if we could refine our wear marks a little more? Like, I only want to see pages that other technical writers rated highly. Or I don’t want to see anything popular with system administrators.

I guess the variables are endless.