Comments on: How can we go towards documentation as conversation?

By: annegentle

annegentle — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:45:12 +0000

Bob – Sounds like a great talk! I like the title, Critical Conversations with Customers … Are We Asking Questions That Lead to Answers We Need? Looks good.

Alistair – I’m amazed that YouTube videos are high enough resolution for you to see what’s important on the screen. Then again, there may be good demos that zoom in on the screen so the YouTube 640×480 resolution is readable. But maybe screen grabs are less important than taking you through the “best” features of the software.

Michael – I’ve observed something similar with products that need a lot of configuration in order to give you meaningful examples. I’m working on a product now that does Customer Relationship Management, and without lots of data already incorporated into the product, it’s more difficult understand what you’d do with it. For example, an association that maintains address records for a college fraternity has a home (summer) address for current students plus a school address, and home (year-round) address for alumni plus a work address. Just having that data modeled for me already makes the product come to life for me, I would imagine it would help users in a similar way.

Rachel – I’m so much faster at reading than any other method of learning so I agree. You might be interested in this technology – at ASI I just learned that Google’s search configuration allows you to create special suggested words for search terms that users might use, to avoid them missing what it is they need. It’s like you can create a custom related terms list beyond the usual suggestions (plural, hyphen placement, and so on). Sounds coooool for tech writers for certain, especially if we’re good at the art and science of finding additional index terms.

Thanks everyone for letting me know this is a good series to kick off! Stay tuned for more.

By: Rachel Peters

Rachel Peters — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:07:30 +0000

Yes! Great idea for a series. I’m contemplating a help file right now that needs some serious reworking to make it more coherent. Right now it’s basically just a reference tool. You can search it for answers if you know the right terms – not very helpful to a novice.

I like Alistair’s point a lot. I’ve been creating Flash demos that show users how to do basic tasks in our software. They were originally created more as sales tools – kind of a “look how easy our software is to use” thing. But users really like them.

But to Mike’s point, when I’m the user I don’t like tutorials. I much prefer reading how-tos. I don’t like being stuck with watching a video when I can read so much faster. However, when you’re working with something that’s very complex, I think videos and interactive tutorials are great (and even I will go look for them!).

By: Michael Hughes

Michael Hughes — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:15:58 +0000

I’d like to see a resurgence of an old idea, namely electronic performance support systems, as one of the ultimate examples of documentation as conversation. Currently, developers design Wizards and writers write tutorials (I know, sweeping generalization). The problem I have as a user with tutorials is they say, “Put your problem aside for while and work on this make-believe one instead.” The more we as technical communicators can get into the Wizard business, the more we get into a complex conversation that includes the user, the application, and the user’s real data.

This is not a counter to anyone else’s fine observations, just one more perspective thrown into the pot.

By: Alistair Christie

Alistair Christie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:25:05 +0000

I love the Confucius quote (I’ll be borrowing that, I think). Personally, these days, I find that I always hope software will come with instructional videos – and if it doesn’t I invariably go straight to YouTube to look for some. For me, even quick & dirty videos on YouTube are more effective as documentation than professionally produced written documentation that demands more of my time and effort. I think we need to move from thinking of ourselves as technical writers and start thinking of ourselves as technical communicators. We need to find the most effective way of engaging our audience because – as Confucius says – people are much more likely to understand something if they feel involved.

By: Bob Beims

Bob Beims — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:15:44 +0000

Anne, sounds like a fascinating topic … but then I’m a little biased, as it fits right in with the topic of a session where I’ll be speaking at next month’s Best Practices conference.

http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/bestpractices/2008/index.htm