RE: Best technical writing of the season

["Ruiter, Vicki" <Vicki_Ruiter -at- sra -dot- com>]

My seven-year-old son is a K'Nex addict.  He actually does have their
largest sets and builds them by himself. The largest set he builds over four
or five days - with an hour or two a day spent building it.  The
instructions are clear enough for a kid who is seven.  For him, the fun is
in the challenge of building.  I don't think that they are *easy* sets, but
if they were easy, I don't think he would enjoy them. Compared to building,
he probably plays with the fully assembled sets for perhaps an hour or so.

At any rate, I'm guessing that the people at K'Nex who put together the
manuals know their audience.  A seven-year-old boy who enjoys complicated
building toys - no problem. If they were writing their manual for me, they'd
have to change their manual substantially - but I am not their target
audience...I generally use K'Nex to sweep things out from under the fridge.


[As an aside....Is it not an odd thing to balk at a toy taking eight hours
to put together? It is, after all, *a building toy*; the point is to build
with it.  We don't have any video games, but I am guessing that there are
plenty of video games that take people eight hours to get to a certain level
on the game?  I am sure that there are plenty of television shows out there
that some people just "can't miss" an episode and must easily devote eight
hours to watching. Perhaps there are even people out there that spend eight
hours reading a....(shudder to think!)...BOOK!]

Vicki Ruiter
vicki_ruiter -at- sra -dot- com

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Hanvey
To: TECHWR-L
Sent: 1/5/04 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: Best technical writing of the season


Funny you should mention that.  A national new magazine (60 minutes;
PrimeTime, or one of their ilk) ran a piece on instruction booklets just
before Christmas.  I believe the product was one of the connex pieces,
and
everyone who tried to put it together gave up.  They showed pictures,
and
each one was beautifully illustrated, one step per page.  But the book
was
very thick, and the participants repeatedly were confused by where
exactly
things should go.

The company said it should take something like 8 hours to complete the
assembly.  That was enough to make most people balk. 8 hours for a toy?

Jeff Hanvey
Thomson, GA
jewahe -at- lycos -dot- co -dot- uk
http://www.jewahe.net