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Subject:2014 version of 1980s "quick reference card" ? From:Alison Wyld <alison -dot- wyld -at- wyld-home -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 16 Jan 2014 11:46:23 +0100
I've trawled the archive but not found anything...
I've been tech writing on and off for 25 years but have run into a new
question (at least new for me.) Most of my experience has been producing
Administrator and Developer documentation for Telecoms related products.
However the company I now work for has a product that has true "end-users"
- agents in a call center. So these are folk with no technical training or
background, potentially in fact not so much formal eduction (though you
have to be bright and quick thinking to do the job, you might not have the
formal schooling to go with it) and sometimes of course off shore, so
working in their 2nd (or 3rd) language.
Our interface is OK, but we feel they need some support. I've written a 10
page guide, but I'm not happy with it, because although its complete and
correct it looks like a technical manual, and I strongly suspect that my
target readers are not going to engage with it.
Back when I started in the late 80s, I'd probably have been looking into
doing some sort of laminated quick reference card. But I'm thinking that
things must have moved on since then, and that its just me that is out of
date. We're thinking perhaps of some kind of animated tutorial for new
users, but I still think they might need ongoing support...
If anyone can provide any pointers to anything interesting along those
lines, that would be great ! (Oh yes, we're a small company, we don't have
much budget to invest in tools for this, obviously.)
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