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Interface Design
Help!, Part III
The fine art of documentation
Issue: 2.6 (July/August 2004)
Author: Toby Rush
Author Bio: Toby Rush is a music instructor, consultant, freelance programmer, web designer, husband, and Dad in Greeley, Colorado.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 9,324
Starting Page Number: 44
RBD Number: 2622
Resource File(s): None
Related Link(s): None
Known Limitations: None
Excerpt of article text...
Over the last few columns, we have talked about how to write a program that doesn't need a user's manual. Once you've gone over your program so that every window and dialog box is so user-friendly that no one could ever possibly need to even consider reading a user's manual, the next step is to write a user's manual.
Writing for Dummies
We'll forego diplomacy and tact for a moment to emphasize the most important aspect of writing a user manual: You need to assume that your user is a complete and utter moron when it comes to computers. Hopefully, of course, all your users will find your program easy to use and not even need the user's manual. But those users who, for whatever reason, don't "get it" -- they're the ones who will become frustrated and angry if you don't provide them with some comprehensive and well-written documentation (and, as luck would have it, tell legions of other potential customers about their experience).
In keeping with the concept of writing for the computer-challenged, here are some things to consider while writing your user manual:
...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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