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Subject:Re: Was: ISO better tools - Now Feedback From:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> To:techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:01:43 -0800
Negative feedback on specific topics could be very useful, especially
combined with comments. You could either add the information or add a
cross-reference to the appropriate topic. I've gotten some feedback
like that by simply adding a mailto link at the bottom of every help
topic, but the more effort it takes the user, the less likely they are
to respond.
A report on search terms could be helpful. If I saw that people were
commonly searching for a phrase that's not in the help, you could
revise topic titles and index entries accordingly.
It would be interesting to hear from people who actually receive
usage-tracking reports.
On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 3:17 PM, Rick Stone <rstone75 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Okay, it would be way cool if someone could please post something that
> substantiates the use of feedback mechanisms such as how many views, etc.
>
> I see these questions all the time across various fora. Company X advertises
> that their tool Y is capable of tracking all this wonderful feedback about
> how many times topic Z has been hit.
>
> Can someone please advise how this helps me in the real world? Sure, topic Z
> may be more popular than topic A. Does that make topic A more valuable than
> topic C that seldom gets hit? Does it mean that topic C becomes an eventual
> candidate for deletion and removal from the help system? What about topic Z?
> Does it mean that you do something special with it? Develop an FAQ that
> contains topic Z perhaps?
>
> Or what about statistical reports that infer a user normally traverses a
> path from topic Z to topic B to topic D before finally stopping at topic L?
> How do you know topic L is really the topic that solved the issue and not
> simply where everyone eventually concludes the help had nothing they were
> looking for and they gave up?
>
> These reports are great and all, but how do real world help authors use them
> when the moment release 7.1 is made public management is pouncing on you
> asking why documentation isn't yet complete for 7.2 or 8?
>
> Cheers... Rick :)
>
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