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Originally Posted by Lou 
Helps to see it from the user point of view? Helps?
***, it's essential, guys... |
Behind most applications there is a "group of nerdy guys" who discuss endlessly the best way to deliver the ideal solution for the customer. Too many of us have seen the actuality that results.
When I first set out to write the user manual and help file first it actually forced me to consider what I was asking the user to do, finger press by finger press. A lot of people have been through a similar experience on this forum trying to describe a dance move. I have to confess that I have failed to understand the vast majority are describing after two or three read throughs.
The program I was working on was decoding drilling program files imported from paper tape. The competition asked ASCII/ EIA/ EBCIDIC? Metric/Imperial?Leading zeros suppressed/trailing zeros suppressed? Decimal point position? manufacturer format? and more...
Trying to explain just the meaning of those terms was a nightmare. Most of the time the user just received a disk and a diagram, and could not answer the questions even if they knew what they meant.
I ended up with a user manual that said click on the file. If it looks nothing like the diagram press this button once or twice until it does. If it too big press this key until it is the right size. If it is too small press that button. If none of this works our program does not understand that format yet - call us.