Tech Writing for Seniors

Subject: Tech Writing for Seniors
From: "Trese, Timothy G." <Timothy -dot- G -dot- Trese -at- SAICSeals -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 08:28:08 -0400


My grandmother is a wonderful woman of 88 years, charming and lovable.
Though her mental acuity is somewhat in decline, she still enjoys living
by
herself, and does very well in most respects. Technology has never been
her
strong suit, however, and she's frequently flustered, as many of us are,
by
the increasing complexity of her home appliances. A year ago Christmas,
I
bought her a little stereo for her apartment. That's when the trouble
started.

"I can't seem to get the Bing Crosby record to play. Could you have a
look
at it?"
"Sure, Mimi. Do you mean the CD or tape?"
"It's a CD, I guess. One of the silver things."

And so I'd show her how to do it, explaining carefully the buttons to
press,
what to look for, and so on.

We went through weekly iterations of this before it dawned on me that I
might turn my work as a professional technical writer to good advantage,
and
design a little quick-reference sheet for her.

Sorry to say that the quick-reference was only marginally effective.
She'd
frequently get hung up on one of the little ambiguities in the user
interface, like not being able to distinguish the Play button on the CD
player from the Play button on one of the tape drives, for example.
Perhaps
my document design was to blame, but I'd like to think that at least
some
measure of the fault could be left with the stereo itself: the small
button
labels and inscrutable pictograms, the impersonal flat black finish and
sparse styling that gave the front panel no obvious Gestalt, and the
mysterious flashing lights and weirdly abbreviated LED displays. Not to
mention the new (to her) technology of compact disc. I'm sure she found
it a
little intimidating, and in retrospect, I should have chosen a stereo
more
technophobe-friendly.

But my Grandmother takes pride in her independence and would not dream
of
replacing such a thoughtful gift from her only grandson. I was eager to
help, but I knew it embarrassed her to repeatedly ask questions. More
creative measures were called for.

After some brainstorming, I went to the office supply store and got some
colored adhesive circles. These I numbered and adhered to the buttons on
the
stereo, showing the exact order in which to press the buttons. I taped a
key
on top of the stereo: the red numbered stickers for radio, blue for CD,
and
yellow for tape. As an extra measure, I even put blue circles on the CD
jewel cases, and yellow ones on the cassette cases.

That seemed to do the trick. The questions stopped, and my list of
after-church chores for Mimi went back to taking out trash, changing
light
bulbs, and the like. Until this past Sunday:

"I can't get the record to play. It just makes a funny noise."
"Okay, Mimi. Do you mean a CD or a tape?"
"Blue stickers. A CD."
"Okay, lets have a look."

I turned on the unit and pressed the CD play button; the most godawful
blast of rasping white noise issued from the speakers. "Uh, oh," I
thought
to myself, "Has she killed it?"

Then I opened the CD tray, and had to suppress a laugh. She was trying
to
play a CD called "TRY ALL NEW AOL 7.0! 1000 HOURS FREE!"




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