Re: Concept - Task ratio

[John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

>> Many companies are adopting the Tivo model that Laura reported
>> and I feel that's a big disservice to users. If we help them
>> understand the the why, they'll have an easier time dealing with the how.

That works in the area of software documentation to professionals in
the tech field, the kind that we are used to dealing with.

However, picture your grandmother. She has a phone and the audio sound
is poor...her granschild sounds garbled when she calls to say hello on
Sunday afternoon.

Does she want to read stuff that includes, but is not limited to:

"Noise interference only affects analog waves; therefore static or
garbled audio can occur wherever analog waves are used in the system.
To reduce this possibility, the only section of the telephone system
that will use analog waves is from the phone port on the device to the
telephone handset. No matter what setup you have, the signal has to
get translated to analog waves at some point, or else you wound not be
able to understand the sound coming out of the phone. "

or does she want to read

Step 1 ...
Step 2 ..
Step 3 ..

We aren't adopting it because it's cheaper...on the contrary,
conceptual material is cheaper to write than procedures.

We're adopting it because we read several hundred comments per week
from customers through article feedback and this is what they are
telling us they want.

-- 
John Posada
http://jposada.zenfolio.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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