What if your user’s guide had to read like an Instant Messaging, or IM conversation – quick, real-time questions, fast answers, and tailored to nearly every potential customer situation? Harry Miller from Microsoft pondered this very question in a podcast in the mid-2000s. Sometimes users expect precise answers from their user guide. When you work […]
How can we go towards documentation as conversation?
Tell me… and I will forget. Show me… and I will remember. Involve me… and I will understand. -Confucius Documentation as conversation means getting closer to the users and helping them perform well. Over the years experts such as JoAnn Hackos and Jared Spool have told us that this type of user-centered design and focus […]
Real life, online life, all mashed up
Mashups and virtual worlds are more and more a part of Web 2.0, and perhaps as an extension, part of social media. An example of a mashup that is social is on Nikeplus.com, where I can map out running routes using Google maps. The “mashing” is defined by me, a user, using Google maps to […]