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Subject:Re: "Granny" instructions From:Bill Burns <BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 14 Nov 1997 09:07:39 -0700
Krista,
You may have to just grit your teeth and comply. However, you might try
to discover the source of your client's request. Ask questions about the
workers' task environment. Try to come up with a profile of the average
user, including literacy and technical experience levels. See if you can
determine what kinds of problems their users are having, then address
those problems. My guess is that your clients want everything included
because they don't know what specifically the problem is.
It makes more sense for you to spend the time up front to determine the
conditions under which the instructions are used and the specific
information that users need to perform their tasks. Having exhaustive
and extraneous detail will simply ensure that the users will avoid using
the manuals because they won't be able to find what they need anyway.
Bill Burns
Senior Technical Writer
ILE Communications Group
billdb -at- ile -dot- com
