Readers in the real world

[Arthur Comings <atc -at- CORTE-MADERA -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM>]

A number of people apparaently find it hard to believe that users might
not start at page one and read straight through to the end of one of
our docs -- especially one like an IG, where you really don't want to
miss anything.

I maintain that our readers are humans, not robots, and that if we
really studied them, we'd discover that they read our docs more or less
the way they read anything else -- in fits and starts, and looking for
what they need, rather than what would be easiest for us to give them.
They don't cozy up with a doc like they do with a novel, and read every
word.

Anyway, Jan Boomsliter passed along some real-life observations, which
(since they support my position) I have obtained permission to share
with the list.

As I said earlier, I don't deny that some people claim to read
documentation in a very obedient manner;  I just think that if we
assume that most of our readers do, we can make our job easier, and the
average reader's job harder.


Arthur


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 > 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 ....

.  .  .