Re: The coming predominance of user experience and technical communications

[Richard Lewis <tech44writer -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Chris Borokowski wrote:
   
  It seems to me this is the kind of role [dev of effective User Interfaces] technical communicators/writers should get involved with. We've got tons of technology, but how much of it is slow and inefficient and tiresome because the interface sucks?

Richard Lewis responds:
   
  I went grocery shopping last night and I flat out told the store manager that I refuse to learn the interface of their You-Do-The-Scanning system.   If I have to learn yet another terrible interface, I am going to throw up all over the place.  I mean, I have to select the "Bakery" icon to tell the darn thing that I am next going to scan a vegetable.  
   
  When I politely pointed this out to them, I was told something like "You gotta understand that the SKU's of many of our vegitable items are in the same bin category as are our bakery items."  I should have told them, but did not, that I was there to buy some tomatoes - not to learn the internals of how their store works.
   
  What can change this insanity?  Hackos has it right about focusing on the end-users goals and the tasks they use to accomplish their goals.  ( However, what she did not write about was that, especially for larger scale systems, in order to come up with a comprehensive, integrated understanding of goals and tasks, one needs to rigorously identify the interrelationships between them. The interrelationships are the litmus test of the degree of rigor that goal and task analysis has been performed.)
   
  Richard Lewis
   
  Show Me Your DFD's  
   
   

       
---------------------------------
Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.