RE: These users have us stumped!

Subject: RE: These users have us stumped!
From: "Marguerite Krupp" <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 14:58:10 -0400


Why reinvent the wheel? Just give them something like the _Visual Quick
Start Guide for Windows_, which starts at the beginning, have your
instructors spend one session on basic skills, then start with your own
company's product in the second session.

It's not that you need to "dumb down" the docs any more than you have, but
you do need to build some basic skills. And if these people have learned how
to drive a car, they've learned how to operate something far more complex
than a computer running Windows. Somebody showed them how. So you need to
have your instructors do the same thing.

One thing that much of the entry-level product doc I've seen omits is the
reason WHY you would do something (or not do something). Lots of great
procedures, but no connection to doing something useful. Rather than
"dumbing down" docs, make the docs smarter in regard to the users' needs.

Or maybe my understanding of what you're asking is all wrong. It's been one
of those days.

Marguerite



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References:
Re: These users have us stumped!: From: Paul Strasser

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