Society for Technical Communication—Israel Chapter

The April STC Israel events included a presentation by David Wolicki. I totally enjoyed his fast paced and interesting talk laced with humor and lots of old fashioned good advice. I am sitting here with my notes, trying to figure out how best to share them with you. I hope you don't mind if I do this in a somewhat outline fashion.

How Did We Get Where We Are?

Feature Glut has led to Info Glut, resulting in bigger (and not necessarily better) manuals. This, despite the fact that 805 of the people use 20% of the features 80% of the time!

Why such large documents?

• Somone complained about an obscure feature - so it got documented (for only 1 person!)
• Over specialized and redundant info for special users
• Unneccesary details
• Old information

Today's Situation

Today, hi-tech industries are facing new challenges.

• Feature rich products are loosing contracts to products that are fast and easy.
• Big products are "dumbing down", hiding behind the Advanced button
• New buzzwards are leading the way
  • Plug & Play (I thought it was pray....)
  • First day experience
  • Out of box experience
  • User centered design, usability, ease of use....
• Economic down-turn
  • Slimmer staff
  • Less people to write and review
  • Same crazy deadlines

The Challenge: Too Much Information

• Makes it harder to find what you need
• Forces you to filter what you think is relevant
• Harder to maintain documentation projects
• Takes longer to write

In the face of these challenges, we need to question things. What really needs to be in our documentation?

Solutions: Cutting, Reorganizing, Automating

Throughout this process, your aim is to find out the following: What does the user need to know?

Stage 1: Start Big

• Look at books in documentation projects
  • Do they each have a specific purpose?
  • Do they contain similar info?
  • Does the user know where to look?
  • Which book does the user really need?

Stage 2: Make a Plan

• Identify objectives
  • What are the key concepts to be conveyed?
  • How much information must be communicated?
• Break the information into manageable chunks
  • Remove unneccessary information
  • Consolidate books
  • Rearrange chapters

Stage 3: Implementation

• Write less
  • Question additions to documents
  • Keep structure and language simple
  • Watch out for confusion
  • Remove obsolete issues
  • Teach the SMEs (I forget what he meant here, sorry....)
• Edit for economy
• Review the logical and look for clear organization

Stage 4: Look Again!

• Can you remove more?
• Did you meet your objectives?
• Get feedback from the field

Concrete Suggestions

• Delete theory that does not translate into action
• Slash screens that do not require user intervention or that are intuitive
• Delete lengthy descriptions of what the product is—keep only how to use it
• Convert headings followed by brief text to a tble
• Delete unneccessary headings
• Rename descriptions of internal architecture that is not of interest to the user

Overcoming Resistance to Change

There are always limiting factors when trying to improve your documentation project by reducing their length and improving their readability.

• Committement from reviewers: without this, you cannot get the feedback needed
• Resistance to change: You need better and more concrete information and this may require change on the part of the information providers
• Time & deadlines: It takes longer to write less!

How do you overcome this resistance? Point out that increased usability of end-user documentation will lead to fewer customer complaints and reduced maintenance costs.

In summary, I learned a lot from this presentation. I also realized how important it is to get feedback from our end-users. Without this information, it is impossible to make the judgement calls required to make our documentation more effective.

I hope you can all make the next STC Event. Catch you all later!

Debbie Shapiro