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Subject:Re: Tech docs in a recent movie From:Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:38:30 -0500
I'm with you, Lynn. I've been a Windows user (and advocate) since I first
got a runtime version of it with Aldus PageMaker 1.0a in 1986. A major
portion of my career as a tech writer and instructor is all Windows-centric,
I took on one horrible redo of a sales manual in '88 or so. The client has
used some POS Mac DTP app that required that I rent an SE. It was
absolutely no more intuitive than Windowsâregardless of all of the Apple
propaganda and the minions who swallowed that codswallop.
About five years ago I had another go on a Mac-based project, this time
running InDesign on a client's borrowed Mac Mini. The form factor was very
nice (but so is my Intel NUC). Again, it was no more intuitive than any
version of Windows.
As for iTunes, *why*? I get all of my music elsewhere, with no added Apple
tax, thanks. And it's no sweat loading tunes on my HTC smartphone (complete
with replaceable battery and microSD memory card slot, for which I paid
zero extra other than the card itself).
Music management? Got it covered, thanks (the fully customizable J River
Media Center that streams anywhere I want it to).
Marketing, marketing, marketing... that's all Jobs was about.
On Fri, Jan 6, 2017 at 3:10 PM, Wright, Lynne <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- kronos -dot- com>
wrote:
> HAHAHAHAHA! (I'm looking at YOU, itunes, you monstrous piece of confusion!)
>
> On a more serious note, software designers should consider that
> "intuitivity" is relative. What seems obvious to one person may leave
> someone else utterly lost.
>
> For example, having been a long-time Windows user, when I finally bought a
> Mac, I was pretty befuddled trying to figure out basic stuff ... and some
> things still make zero sense to me (for example, why do you have to use a
> keyboard command to access your Library, because for some illogical reason,
> you can't just access it from the Finder or some menu or other, like
> everything else? And there is NO way of knowing that without employing a
> google). There are still tons of features on my laptop and iphone that I
> don't know how to use, because the help is useless and I can't be bothered
> to figure out the functionality through a mess of trial and error.
>
> But you take a kid who's grown up using Apple products and they are able
> to figure out new features pretty quickly.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> Keith Hood
> Sent: January-06-17 2:32 PM
> To: Mark Giffin <mgiffin -at- earthlink -dot- net>
> Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Tech docs in a recent movie
>
> According to what I've been told by software designers, pretty soon now
> they'll be deploying software that's so intuitive there won't be any need
> for any kind of user-facing documentation.
>
> They've been saying they're going to have that any day now for at least 25
> years. I call it the Duke Nukem upgrade.
>
> On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 3:34 PM, Mark Giffin <mgiffin -at- earthlink -dot- net> wrote:
>
> > I recently saw the movie Passengers, which is about space travel in
> > the future. I enjoyed the movie but it was also remarkable because
> > technical documentation figured heavily in the plot. Many scenes
> > involved someone grabbing the user manuals for one piece of equipment
> > or another, and then following the docs to accomplish something (or
> > not!). Several other scenes involved machines talking to the person
> > (with a talking 3D face sometimes), telling the person what was
> > happening, how to use the space suit, or whatever it was.
> >
> > So hopefully we'll have work even far into the future! Unless it was
> > all automated.
> >
> > Mark Giffin
> > Mark Giffin Consulting, Inc.
> > http://markgiffin.com/
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