Re: Online/print

Subject: Re: Online/print
From: laurence hoess <lhoess -at- UNM -dot- EDU>
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 15:43:48 -0600


>So this has raised a number of questions in my mind, most having to do
>with how people use the tools available to them. They can gripe and
>moan about useless manuals, and techies in the field can point to the
>latest in online technology as a means of getting information, but I
>wonder if these aren't all somewhat irrelevant. What do you do if your
>(extremely intelligent but incredibly busy) user community won't use the
>tools available, and the program itself isn't particularly intuitive?
>What to you do about the basic problem of overload? Documentation -
>whether paper or online - can only do so much.


> Elna Tymes
> Los Trancos Systems

As Elna points out, a busy person won't take the time to read if he or she
can get results without reading the documents.

What's more, if the software is intuitive, there is less need to read the
documents until you get stuck. After all, if you are working with a
drawing software application and you see a push button with a box in the
it, it seems intuitive that this has something to do with objects that
have parallel and perpendicular sides.

The less intuitive something is the more we need to read to understand it.

Just 2c worth,
Laurence Hoess


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