Re: Not reading manuals like a novel

[Jan Boomsliter <boom -at- CADENCE -dot- COM>]

Good for you!  I wanted to send this to the list, but it got too
complicated, so I'll be content sending private kudos.

FYI, I've written installation manuals where I observed the test people
using it, and also went to a Beta installation and took notes on how the
doc was used.  I'm here ta tellya - even installation manuals are not
"read" or used sequentially; sometimes you have to break and work on
something else while you're waiting for the electrician to get down
here and bless the power to the site, or for MIS to fix the glitch in
the net ....

Anyway, I believe that the originator of the thesis that people don't
read from page 1 to the end, was discussing reference docs.  Some
people just don't pay attention.

Jan Boomsliter
boom -at- cadence -dot- com
408/428-5428
======================

 > >>One of the basic tenets of tech writing, of course, is that people
 > don't read from page 1 to the end, like they do with a novel.<<
 >
 > I'd have to say that, as a tenet, this is NOT correct.  It is true about a
 > number of types of tech writing, but by no means all.  For example, people
 > read an installation manual sequentially; many training guides (please
 > remember that not all technical training guides have to do with hardware or
 > software) must be read sequentially.

 I guess you've got me as far as installation guides go -- although I'd
 like to see a videotaped study of how a couple of dozen actual users
 really make use of one .  But for "training guides" (assuming that you
 mean what I would call tutorials ),  they often consist of several
 fairly free-standing excercises that may be done on different days by
 people who may need some and not others.

 And if users gets to take the tutorials back to their desks, they
 often dip into the book to see how a few steps were done -- they may
 never go back to page one, if they ever saw it initially.  If their
 training sessions were like any I've ever had to endure, they didn't
 have time to read *anything* carefully anyway.



 Regardless, my point (which I may have overstated) was that in my
 cosmology, you can't write as though the user has remembered everything
 between page one and where they are in the doc;  you constantly have to
 be aware that they may need their feet put solidly back on the ground,
 as it were.  Of course, the trick is to balance this constant need for
 reminders with the necessity to be consise and not to put people to
 sleep.  A nice trick, and one that I enjoy --  fortunately.






 Arthur Comings

 GeoQuest
 Corte Madera, California
 atc -at- corte-madera -dot- geoquest -dot- slb -dot- com