Help? (getting users to read)

Subject: Help? (getting users to read)
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 16:39:10 -0400


Peggy Lucero reports: <<Anyone know of studies/articles that discuss how to get users to read your help documentation?>>

Attaching dollar bills to the pages at least gets them to flip pages, or so I've heard. <g> More seriously, I'm not aware of any good way to "make" people read documentation. You can create an interface so lousy that they have no choice, but I wouldn't recommend that.

<<I've written new user guides for various sections of a naval medical website and am now trying to determine best practice/method to get our user community to read them!>>

There's this whole "obeying orders" thing you can take advantage of. <g> But seriously: if the information is essential to their job performance, then they'll be motivated to read it. If not, and if not reading it has no consequences, how can you possibly motivate them?

--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo

From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed
documentation with ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 7 Professional, a new yearly
subscription service offering free updates and upgrades, support, and more.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -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.



Follow-Ups:

References:
help: From: Lucero, Peggy A. NMIMC Contractor

Previous by Author: Single spacing, double spacing, and doing It ones own way?
Next by Author: Single spacing, double spacing, and doing It ones own way?
Previous by Thread: help
Next by Thread: Re: Help? (getting users to read)


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads