Teach 'em to fish, don't give 'em fish (this one's safe too)

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

>> We have recently started looking at ways to develop "independent users"
>> who will try to help themselves rather than making phone calls first and
>> reading the documentation, if necessary, later.

>     Isn't redesigning the users harder than redesigning either the
>     product or the documentation?  How do you propose to accomplish
>     this?

>     Carol

Carol,
I guess I wasn't clear about my previous posting. We have no control over the
product--we cannot redesign it. UNIX (without X-terms) is just UNIX, ditto for
VMS, TSO, CMS, and several other acronyms.

My point is that we want to write/design documentation to teach users to fish
rather than just giving them fish. It is easier, for me at least, to write
precise instructions on the lines of do this, do that, now do something
else, than it is to explain what is going on and why the users must do x, y, and
z. The precise instructions which just give steps don't improve the user's
understanding of the system, which also doesn't make them any more comfortable
with it. If they *UNDERSTAND* then it is easier for everyone concerned to write
and use the documentation.

If people understand that LISTSERV is a program which blindly follows (or
rejects) instructions, and TECHWR-L is a forum read by several people, they
will be more likely to understand WHY the messages to listserv must be just so,
and the messages to TECHWR-L get such heated responses.

I don't know, maybe I am completely off base, but I think that grooming
knowledgable users who understand a modicum (sp) of why they do what they
do leads to better documentation all around, in addition to making the support
tasks easier.

Eric
ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu