Re: CNET Editor Death Caused by a Technical Communication Mistake?

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

I've never seen a roadmap that didn't say "check local road
conditions."  The family had a planned route, missed a turn 
and instead of retracing their path and getting back on the 
planned route chose a new one on the fly without stopping
to verify it was a good choice.

At the risk of adding another insensitive comment, this 
tragedy was the result of a foolish error.  But it's only the
beginning of the winter travel season, and anyone with a
trip still in the planning stage would do well to remember 
that even very smart people can make very foolish errors.  

Documentation should never be expected to act as a 
replacement for exercising common sense.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>


But is this something that will be obvious to the end-user map-reader?

We, as technical communicators, already know that if we don't make all
the information really easy to find, preferably all in the same place,
then whatever requires an effort won't be read.

While there is plausible deniability in telling people to do things we
know they won't do, it's not awfully helpful.

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