TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Scott Parsons reports: <<I want to create an audience profile but am not
sure how to begin.>>
Begin with a clear definition of what your goals are in doing so. Different
goals will suggest different strategies. For example, "improving our
documentation" is not a clear goal; "reducing the number of technical
support calls" and "eliminating all calls to tech support because readers
couldn't find a topic in the index" are both clearer goals.
<<I was thinking we should sent out a survey to some of our customers and
request feedback on our work. With that information, I hope to improve the
quality of my group's work.>>
Surveys generally aren't a good way to do this because (1) you get a very
low response rate and (2) the responses you get are often unrepresentative
of the audience as a whole. Moreover, the goal isn't so much to get feedback
as it is to improve the documentation. There are many ways to go about this,
but here are two ends of the spectrum:
Most productive, but expensive/time-consuming: Conduct a formal usability
test, with carefully selected users that represent different segments of
your audience. Look for problems and opportunities for improvement.
Acceptable approach if you can't work directly with users: Talk to your
trainers, sales staff, and technical support geeks to find out the types of
problems they solve on an ongoing basis. Focus on eliminating these
problems. Consider asking them to interview callers to identify the sources
of any problems with the documentation. Trainers and sales staff should have
a good idea of what the users are like, and you can use this as the starting
point for your improvements.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a
personality, and an obnoxious one at that."--Kim Roper
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you using Doc-to-Help or ForeHelp? Switch to RoboHelp for Word for $249
or to RoboHelp Office for only $499. Get the PC Magazine five-star rated
Help authoring tool for less! Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
Free copy of ARTS PDF Tools when you register for the PDF
Conference by April 30. Leading-Edge Practices for Enterprise
& Government, June 3-5, Bethesda,MD. www.PDFConference.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
