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Subject:Re: Tutorial without final data (%, $) From:Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 18 Sep 2002 16:44:03 +0200
>Does that help or have I added to the confusion?
If I understand you correctly, the product that you are describing allows
users to input data of their own which is then combined in some way with
statistical data resident in the application to create new data. (E.g.,
users could enter "female, 40 to 60" and the application would give them
a percentage back.)
The internal data that is now stored in the application will change
before the release.
Therefore, if you walk your users through the tutorial, they can enter
exactly the data that you tell them to and perform all the correct steps,
but still see different results than you show in the tutorial. You are
afraid (rightly so) that some users will be confused by this.
Correct?
If this is close to what your problem is, I can see two solutions:
- Tell the users in the manual that the screenshots and information on
application feedback is based on old data, and that they will see
something different on their screens. As this approach relies on the
users reading the manual thoroughly, I would not recommend it.
- Do not tell or show the users what the program gives them as feedback.
E.g., instead of writing "The program displays 23%", tell them "The
program displays the percentage of females aged between 40 and 60 in the
target population." If you have screenshots, blur the output numbers so
that they become unreadable.
Regards
Jan Henning
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Jan Henning
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany
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