Re: Funny Tech Writing

Subject: Re: Funny Tech Writing
From: Kevin Montgomery <robertm -at- qualcomm -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 12:48:26 -0700


At 02:24 PM 9/18/2002 -0500, SR_Bryant wrote:

Considering the product and the audience, I think the writing style used in
the Timex guide is very approprite. It's an excellent piece of writing
that's not in the least bit "contrived" or overdone. The writer speaks
directly to his audience to convey his message and impart his wisdom in a
style that very skillfully gets and holds his reader's rapt attention --
quite an achievement!!

Indeed it *is* an achievement! Watches have had notoriously lousy documentation: minuscule type on a sheet of flimsy paper folded 64 times, poor translation from Korean into something almost as unintelligible, intimidating structure... In one of my several "careers," I was a national sales manager for a wristwatch importer. I was the ONLY person at the importer who could run all the functions on the watches we sold. I made many friends among coworkers, sales reps, and customers by writing simple descriptions of the functions along with procedures for using them.

The Timex Helix user guide is wonderful. Timex is also working hard on their UI. My wife just bought a watch for my daughter that uses arrows appearing on the LCD to indicate which button to use next when setting the time or using a function. For the first time in my household, someone other than me was able to set a digital watch! And, of course, my wife did it without using the instructions. A wonderful new day is dawning...

- Kevin


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Enhance, optimize and automate your FrameMaker-to-PDF workflow with TimeSavers:
Define all PDF features in your source FrameMaker files ONCE, distill MANY.
Bookmark Controller, Link Controller, UnBloat & more : http://www.microtype.com

Experience RoboHelp X3! This new RoboHelp release combines single sourcing,
print-quality documentation, conditional text and much more, into the most
monumental release of RoboHelp ever! http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
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.



References:
Re: Funny Tech Writing: From: SR_Bryant

Previous by Author: Re: Viva le Same! Linux
Next by Author: RE: Funny technical writing--risky?
Previous by Thread: Re: Funny Tech Writing
Next by Thread: RE: Funny Tech Writing


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads