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Subject:RE: Seven words for seven words From:"Poshedly, Ken" <PoshedlyK -at- polysius -dot- com> To:"Dan Goldstein" <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 15 Jan 2007 10:13:32 -0500
Both onscreen help and hardcopy help should include generous placements
of the following:
"Software developer John Smith can be reached for answers to your
questions at any time; 123-456-7890 (office), 123-654-0987 (cell) or
123-454-9085 (home)."
Sarcastic pronouncements from on high(?) do NOT make for good work
collaboration.
There's probably no one on this list who hasn't similar degrading
comments about documentation in general.
-- Ken in Atlanta
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=polysius -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+poshedlyk=polysius -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Dan Goldstein
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 10:04 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Seven words for seven words
One of our developers sent an e-mail with the well-worn quote, "User
documentation is only weighed, never read."
I answered: "The second-best possible situation is that when a user
calls Technical Services, Dave or Doug would be able to say: 'OK, please
open the user documentation to page 24 and try following those steps.'
If the user can easily read and follow those steps, gets what s/he
needs, and doesn't call back, we've simultaneously increased our
customer satisfaction and lowered our costs. The best situation, of
course, is for the user to be faced with such an easy and
straightforward interface that they never even make that call. But I'd
like the user documentation to be as clear, concise, correct, and
complete as possible -- just in case."
But what I *really* needed was a seven-word response to the glib,
seven-word quote...
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