Re: Do manuals have to be boring?

[Jenny Greenleaf <jennygreenleaf -at- comcast -dot- net>]

I only wish I could do anything entertaining with my manuals.

The best I've been able to do at my current job is name my sample users after characters in the Big Bang Theory (American sitcom about geeks). Much of my audience is likely to get it. The rest simply won't notice.

Humor can be so tricky--especially if your audience is international. I do think the OmniGroup folks do a good job with making their tutorials  entertaining. The Help is pretty straight up, but the tutorials are very light and breezy.

Jenny


On Aug 26, 2010, at 7:15 PM, Craig Haiss wrote:

> I found the following article inspiring, and it would be great with a Friday morning cup of coffee.
> 
> "How a mouth-watering user guide got me thinking about technical communication"
> 
> http://www.dmncommunications.com/weblog/?p=2069
> 
> It made me long for the kind of computer manuals I read as a kid, when computing was just a hobby and the authors of manuals were perfectly willing to goof off in print.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> -Craig Haiss
> 
> 
> 

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