RE: Tech writers still necessary, but performing poorly

["Jessica Weissman" <Jessica -dot- Weissman -at- hillcrestlabs -dot- com>]

It doesn't even have to be that high tech.  I'll never forget buying a
cassette-based answering machine sometime in the 80s and finding an
hour-long recording of some very very puzzled people trying to get it to
work.  Interspersed with comments from their parrot and discussions of
who would clean the parrot's cage.  It was hilarious, heartbreaking, or
both.  I wanted to save the tape to play for my fellow instructional
designers and developers, but quailed at the prospect of the snarky
comments they might make.

I'm not sure that any booklet would have helped these people, short of a
set of stickers on the machine itself (or, just maybe, a pictorial
foldout) telling them exactly what to do in what order.

-  Jessica
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