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So, what you are saying is that the designers and developers of the software have stopped short of making an excellent UI, and you-and-your gang are now tasked with bridging the gap by documenting?
Gosh. That _never_ happens around here.... :-)
My experience is that I don't get anywhere near making a good, useful illustration or visual metaphor (not the same, I know, but related) until I have solidified and refined my conceptual and instructional text.
Although... y'know... much like trying to fit a bunch of somehow-related objects and interactions into a table, or into a sensible flow-chart, the exercise of trying can often lead to "aha!" moments that help to refine the text. And, the visual metaphor for THAT could be something showing give-and-take, or it could be a depiction of "circling the drain". Ahem.
-----Original Message-----
From: Lois Patterson
Sent: August-06-14 1:39 PM
To: techwr-l
Subject: Re: Software documentation that uses effective visual metaphors?
Of course simply explaining the product never, ever occurred to me :).
The reason I am asking is that we are documenting highly complex software that is not intuitively obvious, at least at first. A team member has developed some graphics that represent a visual metaphor to explain some of the inner workings, and I was trying to find examples of other software packages that have done the same.
Lois
On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 7:20 AM, Lynne Wright <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- tiburoninc -dot- com>
wrote:
>
> By "visual" metaphor, do you mean a graphic? Or a written metaphor
> that evokes a visual image?
>
> And why would you use a metaphor to describe what a product does...
> why wouldn't you just ... um... explain what it does?
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- co
> m]
> On Behalf Of Lois Patterson
> Sent: August-05-14 8:16 PM
> To: techwr-l
> Subject: Software documentation that uses effective visual metaphors?
>
> Does anyone know of software documentation that uses effective visual
> metaphors to describe the processes that the software performs?
> Clearly, lots of software documentation is visually attractive. But I
> am looking specifically for visual metaphors and analogies.
>
>
> Lois
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