Re: Thinking like a user, or sticking to tried and true?

["elizabeth j allen" <eja -at- samurai -dot- com>]

Hi David,

The first thing I do is ask myself if I am considering *all* of my users.
Would your overview be helpful to:
- new employees who are not familiar with the server/router configuration
environment?
- managers of said techs, existing and yet-to-be hired?
- anyone else you can think of who might need to reference the document?

If the answer to all of the above is no, then I would consider omitting
the section.

HTH,

Elizabeth
--
Elizabeth J. Allen
Technical Writer
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein


David Castro said:
> I am working on a short document that is going to be used to train
> some network technicians on how to copy settings from one router to
> another. The documents that this document was based on have had an
> overview section at the beginning. The document that was delivered to
> me to edit & format didn't have any content in this section, but I
> could fairly easily create content based on the rest of the document.
>
> However, in thinking about what my users are like (my SMEs are also
> net techs), I realize that they're going to immediately skip the
> overview and jump right into the nitty gritty. So, the question is
> whether to think like a user and leave off the overview, or create one
> because "there's always been one" and because "it's good practice to
> start by telling them what you're going to tell them and end with
> telling them what you told them."
>
> Which do you do when you're faced with this decision? And why?


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