TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:FAQs in user guides? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 3 Jan 2001 10:51:10 -0500
Chuck Martin <<... just encountered a question that I have never had asked
before, nor seen it dealt with here or elsewhere: Should a FAQ page be a
part of a User Guide?>>
Almost certainly not. In my not so humble opinion, all the frequently asked
questions should be answered directly in the manual, in the right place and
context and somewhere they can be easily found via the index. The worst
thing about typical FAQs is that they're simple braindumps, with no logical
or other organisation, and finding the answer to a question requires readers
to skim the entire FAQ, desperately hoping they'll find a question that
resembles the one they really want to ask. Not effective or user-friendly in
the least.
<<The current online Help system had a FAQ page, which is a common
convention for web-based user assistance.>>
Pointing the user to a Web page with a good index or an effective search
engine might make the FAQ concept more usable. But I'm still skeptical given
the FAQs I've been forced to use thus far.
"Technical writing... requires understanding the audience, understanding
what activities the user wants to accomplish, and translating the often
idiosyncratic and unplanned design into something that appears to make
sense."--Donald Norman, The Invisible Computer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver! (STC Discount.)
**NEW DATE/LOCATION!** January 16-17, 2001, New York, NY. http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001
Conference East, June 4-5, Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. http://www.pdfconference.com or toll-free 877/278-2131.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
