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This still assumes you know what you want and why you want it. That's
the experience talking. Again, a smarter tool is fine and dandy but
experience is what ultimately will define success. That's always been
the case since the dawn of time and will likely continue to be the
case until the end of time.
I don't think you'll get any opposition from anyone to have easier to
use tools, but no matter how easy a tool is to use, you still have to
know why you need it and what you need it for. I mean, there are few
tools out there more simply designed than a hammer. Are you going to
have someone who has no understanding of carpentry, load, and design
build you a deck for your house, or are you going to go with the
skilled carpenter?
On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 6:12 PM, Dan Goldstein
<DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com> wrote:
> Interacting with Help authoring software the way you interact with
> people:
>
> User: In the current project, show me a list of the long topics.
>
> HATT app: Define "long."
>
> User: The ones that a user would have to scroll down more than once to
> read.
>
> HATT app: On a 1280 by 1024 display?
>
> User: Sure.
>
> HATT app: Here they are.
>
> User: For any topic on that list that has subheadings, split it into
> separate topics. Use the subheadings as topic headings for the new
> topics, and add links in the first of a set to each of the new topics
> below it.
>
> HATT app: Where should I put the links?
>
> User: At the end of the first topic in each set.
>
> HATT app: Define "set."
>
> User: The group of topics that you created by splitting up a single long
> topic.
>
> HATT app: Done. What about the topics on the list that don't have
> subheadings?
>
> User: Hide everything past the first scroll down, with the word "More"
> to reveal the hidden text.
>
> ... and so on. The software in this example has no real initiative,
> creativity, or sense of organization. It can do nothing to improve the
> end product without instructions from the user. The only revolution is
> in the communication between the user and the software.
>
> P.S.: I'm just a little worried that Outlook's spell-check suggestion
> for ROFLMAO is RIFLEMAN.
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