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Subject:Re: TECHWR-L Digest - 17 Ju From:Andrew Smith <soa -at- CIX -dot- COMPULINK -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Sun, 24 Jul 1994 09:28:30 GMT
> Does anybody know whether their users read their books? And, for those
> whodo, how do you find out?
I was a technical writer at Acorn Computers here in the UK a few years
ago. We put a reader response form in the back of our manuals, but it was
of limited use, because
(1) Most people just said they liked the manual in a vague sort of way
(2) Some people seemed to have a complete mental block about the
desktop metaphor and couldn't get started, though the intro was *very*
simple and clear (not written by me, that part)
(3) The sample was self-selecting and very small. To have changed
what we wrote on the basis of the responses might have meant going in
completely the wrong direction.
Has anyone found such forms to be worth doing?
Marion (soa -at- cix -dot- compulink -dot- co -dot- uk), Smith Owen Associates, Newmarket,
Suffolk UK.
