Before you begin any documentation project, you need to answer the following questions:
- Who are your users?
- What are they trying to do?
Formally, this is called a User/Task Analysis; informally, it’s called putting yourself in the user’s shoes. Rarely, will all of your users fit under one umbrella. Your User Guide or online help will need to meet the needs of both experienced and inexperienced users, although, to be honest, it’s the new users who will be spending the most time searching through your documentation.
The best way to find out who your users are is to go out and meet them in person. Yes, you can rely on Marketing, Management, and Customer Support to tell you about the users, but if you spend an afternoon with Tom in Nashville, that’s who you will be thinking about when you are back at your desk writing.
If you are lucky enough to spend a day at a customer site, you and your documentation team will probably meet several different kinds of users – technical, non-technical, managers, worker bees—all with different documentation requirements. You will need to decide how to meet the needs of these various users.
Some suggestions:
- Create different documents for different users. General users don’t need to know how to install the software or set up user accounts. If possible, create separate Install, Administrative, and User Guides. Several small guides aimed at specific audiences will make your product seem easier to use. And that perception is important.
- Divide your content. Within your online help, it is very easy to create separate branches for tutorials, concept information and procedures. Remember that over time, new users will become experienced users who don’t want to read long explanations about why they are doing something. They may just need to be reminded about a few of the steps to complete a task.
- Leave out the fluff. No one is interested in reading about why a feature is wonderful. That information should go into the marketing material. I met a user a few years ago who asked me “Why can’t you just tell me what to do?” I ended up shortening my help topics considerably.