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RE: Source for statistics on the technical writing field
Subject:RE: Source for statistics on the technical writing field From:Kat Kuvinka <katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:<techwr -at- genek -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 3 Aug 2009 16:51:28 -0400
I don't agree. I think we use computers every day so we think everybody else does. They affect most of us, for sure. But my point was not whether we decide if the ATM is preferable to the live teller, or if should we do our taxes online. My last job involved software for the printing industry. There is a lot of resistance to changing from scheduling on a white board to scheduling using a software package. Now I am writing for the medical industry, and finding that some doctors can't even use a mouse. Good end-user documentation is still needed, and it should be developed by good communicators who can write without assuming their audience can use a simple UI.
I know a lot of people who don't own or use computers, cell phones, or even cars.
>
> Most of the low hanging fruit (those interested in becoming computer
> literate) has already been picked, and people who are still computer
> illiterate tend to be so by choice. The companies that will be the most
> successful in servicing these users will be those that produce front
> ends designed to handhold them all the way. Think "TurboTax," your
> neighborhood ATM, or the menu for your digital cable TV service.
>
> Things that are simpler upfront are invariably more complex under the
> hood. There is as much, if not more, documentation needed for
> simplified user interfaces as there has ever been for more complex ones,
> but it is mostly be in support of those who must install and service
> them rather than those who use them, and the depth of product and
> technology knowledge required to author them is greater. If these
> documents are often not being prepared by technical writers, perhaps one
> reason for that is the difficulty of finding writers with the necessary
> technical background to do the job without having to be spoon-fed
> information by SMEs.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
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