Re: Help Systems & Gender Differences

[Caryn Rizell <caryn -at- HPPTC44 -dot- ROSE -dot- HP -dot- COM>]

Len Olszewski asks the following:


> Given that I'm unfamiliar with the work Andreas Ramos cited, I wonder
> out loud (inviting comment from any who want to respond) how best to
> incorporate the consideration of gender in my audience analysis, given
> that our software products have users of each gender. Are you saying,
> Caryn, that certain forms of documentation are most likely to be used by
> people of particular genders, and that anticipating and planning for
> that would enable the writer to make those forms more useful?

My response:

Certain forms of docs are most likely to be used by a particular gender.
For example, if you are writing a manual for software that data entry clerks
would use, your audience would most likely be women.  If you are writing
docs for software that auto mechanics would use, most likely your audience
would be men.

Once you know this, you could then orient your docs to that audience.
When I think about this, it seems no different than writing docs
for an American vs Japanese audience.  We all know that there
are differences between what these audiences look for in docs.

I don't know the answer about how to take gender into consideration,
but I think it's worth thinking about.  Maybe I will have to
go back to school and write my doctoral dissertation on this subject!

Caryn Rizell
Tech Writing Contractor
caryn -at- hpptc44 -dot- rose -dot- hp -dot- com