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Writers of user manuals: going the way of the dodo?
Subject:Writers of user manuals: going the way of the dodo? From:Peggy Thomson <Peggy_Thompson -at- CCMAIL -dot- OSTI -dot- GOV> Date:Thu, 27 Jul 1995 16:09:00 -0400
We're all agreed, I think, that movement is away from the clunky
user manuals of old (five yrs ago, I was writing ring-bound
manuals that were two inches thick) toward more streamlined
documentation and online help. I read somewhere that as systems
improve further still (don't snicker), even the clamor for
online help will recede.
Well, that may be greatly oversimplifying the case, but the
principle is true: users want intuitive systems, not systems
supported by reams of paper or screens full of online help.
Where does the writer of computer instruction fit into this
future of receding words?
