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Subject:Re: What good is it if you can't find it? From:Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sat, 16 Nov 2002 01:00:56 -0800 (PST)
"Jan Henning" wrote ...
> I beg to differ. Consider this real-life example: Many years ago, I
> tried to find out how to kern a word in PageMaker. Naturally, I looked
> it up in the index, where it couldn't be found either under kerning or
> any synonym I could think about. I then searched the manual in the
> places where I thought the procedure might be described - still no
> dice.*
>
> Finally, I asked somebody else, something I would have done anyway if I
> hadn't had the manual.
So the manual was incomplete and inaccurate. You even say later that it had some
"bizarre title." I'd call that a content inaccuracy. The writer of that material
gave the section a bad title, which means they didn't understand the material.
Which explains why the docs had the information in a bad place. Hence, bad
content.
> Badly designed documentation is bad documentation, just as incorrect
> documentation is bad documentation.
No...badly designed documentation (i.e. crude text file) can be very valuable to
people who don't care about design. Hence, it has the potential to be useful to
people who are willing to pick through the data. Your example earlier proves
that. Had you picked through the document more carefully, you would have
eventually found the information you needed. You just tapped out at 15
minutejudgmentn levied a judgement that the docs were useless because they didn't
meet your personal information delivery criteria. A more determined and
resourceful reader may have found that information quicker.
Now had that information been inaccurate - it would have been useless regardless
of how well it was placed in the doc.
> Discussing which is worse seems
> rather moot to me - it's like discussing which wheel of a bicycle is
> more important**.
Faulty analogy. The wheels are the content. The color of the bike and the shape
of the frame is design.
Andrew Plato
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