I love me some API documentation. High-tech, eye-crossing developer documentation - database theory, programming requirements. Technical writing at its finest and most detailed. Seriously, I’m into that. But most people aren’t.
What boggles me is how many companies will flat out tell you they realize their users will never open their manuals, and yet print the documentation anyway. How can you then be so surprised when your technical support is inundated with calls from angry users? Of course they’re frustrated - they thought they could just finish this one thing off in a few seconds, and ended up knee-deep in documentation muck. They probably spent 10 minutes just trying to find the darn manual you wasted trees, ink, and money on, and then they couldn’t find the answer they wanted quickly enough anyway.
Everyday users like interactive user assistance that helps them get the job done quickly and easily. You and I both know your interface allows them to do what they need to, and you will tell me it’s not hard to figure out. Guess what? If your users are turning to help documentation, it is not easy to figure out, and they’ll resent feeling stupid or having to take the time to look things up. Especially if they have to waste time trying to make sense of your technical documentation. People are learning to use computers at the same time they learn the alphabet. They grow up using Google as a verb. If you don’t give them the right answer quickly enough, they’re going to find it elsewhere. And if they have to use your software, thinking some bigwig up in corporate spent a load of cash on something that’s frustrating to use, of course they’re calling tech support to yell and complain.
We can no longer insist people become technical wizards just to use software, because kids are growing up knowing now that they are smart enough to use computers, and when the software doesn’t do what they want, they aren’t the ones at fault. They aren’t stupid. They realize a competitor probably does it faster, and they know how easy it is to get at your competitors. They’re not impressed with reference tomes.
The web allows so much flexibility for handling information and getting tasks done. Even if they’re not Googling their way to your competitor, people like interactive tutorials, screenshots, videos, and podcasts. And if they have to read it, they at least want to quickly read what they need to finish their task up in the next minute or two, rather than trudging through a very impressive but useless technical manual. Information overload is a reality and the media offers so many enticing ways to draw attention.
As far as being concise in technical writing - using headers, organizing information, avoiding jargon - can take you, I don’t think it can get everyone there. At least not in the printed manual format based on features and functions or menu items. User assistance should be modular, task-focused, user-centric, and part of an entire instructional strategy. Don’t waste time and money with the same ol’ printed manuals you know are going to be ignored anyway. Why spend company money on dusty old tomes that are never used and frustrate your customers?
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