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"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- editors-writers -dot- info> wrote in message news:213327 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
> I'm suggesting that, let's say, three weeks researching for every one week
> actually creating the documentation is a ratio that might offer another
reason
> for the existence of so much inferior documentation. It simply should not
take
> that long to learn the product one is documenting, in my opinion. And if
it
> does, the amount of time and care spent on creating good documentation
should
> be commensurately increased. I offer as evidence the current quality of a
good
> deal of the documentation that now exists. Perhaps I am wrong, though.
This is
> my sense of the way things should be, but I'd be interested in what others
> have to say.
>
Research isn't just--or shouldn't be just--learning about the product. What
good is knowing how to use the product if you have no clue who the product's
users are, how they use it, and how they _want_ to use it? No to mention how
they really do their work, which in far too many cases, isn't reflected in
how the product is designed.
If you don't know your users at least as well as you know your product, how
can you communicate effectively with them?
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