Comments on: Users are more important than potential users! http://compoundthinking.com/blog/index.php/2006/08/31/users-are-more-important-than-potential-users/ Thinking about programming in new ways Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:30:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mark Ramm http://compoundthinking.com/blog/index.php/2006/08/31/users-are-more-important-than-potential-users/#comment-3760 Mark Ramm Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:26:06 +0000 http://compoundthinking.com/blog/index.php/2006/08/31/users-are-more-important-than-potential-users/#comment-3760 Adam, We provide context sensitive help already, and it helps a lot when somebody is in the right area already. The manual provides a overview of, and a structure for understanding, the process that the software is designed to facilitate. A "getting started" guide, and perhaps a getting started screencast is something we've talked about. Another thing we've been talking about is trying to find a way to distribute paper versions of something like the getting started guide or the manual to our online users in an economical way. People are still way more likely to read paper than PDF's . --Mark Adam,

We provide context sensitive help already, and it helps a lot when somebody is in the right area already. The manual provides a overview of, and a structure for understanding, the process that the software is designed to facilitate.

A “getting started” guide, and perhaps a getting started screencast is something we’ve talked about.

Another thing we’ve been talking about is trying to find a way to distribute paper versions of something like the getting started guide or the manual to our online users in an economical way. People are still way more likely to read paper than PDF’s .

–Mark

]]> By: Adam Jones http://compoundthinking.com/blog/index.php/2006/08/31/users-are-more-important-than-potential-users/#comment-3759 Adam Jones Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:57:56 +0000 http://compoundthinking.com/blog/index.php/2006/08/31/users-are-more-important-than-potential-users/#comment-3759 How are you distributing these manuals? If they are available as a help file you could look into making it context-sensitive so people could just click a "get help" button and it opens the manal pages relevant to what they are doing. If it isn't, consider doing that. Also put any "getting started" information in the front of the manual as well, and fill it with "you can get more information about $X on page $Y" where appropriate. How are you distributing these manuals? If they are available as a help file you could look into making it context-sensitive so people could just click a “get help” button and it opens the manal pages relevant to what they are doing.

If it isn’t, consider doing that. Also put any “getting started” information in the front of the manual as well, and fill it with “you can get more information about $X on page $Y” where appropriate.

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