Podcast: How to Create User-Centered Documentation, Interview with Joe Sokohl
May 30th, 2008 | Posted in Podcasts 16 Comments »
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Duration: 15 min.
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In this podcast, Joe Sokohl explains how to create user-centered documentation by contacting, observing, and interviewing users to gather information about what types of information they use and the help deliverables they actually want.
In his experience, Joe found that almost no one used the user manual, but instead wanted quick information for specific tasks. The users hated stand-up training with PowerPoint slides (what the execs thought users needed), and instead wanted hands-on experience with the real system.
Creating user-centered documention requires technical writers to to break the standard (and ridiculous) rule of not contacting the user, to get out of their shells and interact and interview others, and to often challenge standards and assumptions from executives. It may be hard, but doing so is essential, because if you end up creating the wrong deliverables, all your efforts to create help may be irrelevant and useless.
In the podcast, Joe recommends a number of books:
- About Face, by Alan Cooper (cooperdesign.com)
- The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman
- Emotional Design, by Don Norman
- Observing the User Experience, by Mike Kuniavsky
- Communicating Design, by Dan Brown
- Blueprints for Information Architecture, christina Wodtke
- Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld
For more information on Joe Sokohl, see his blog here. Also, I blogged about this presentation earlier here.
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Tags: Joe Sokohl, user ethnography, User Experience
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Auf I’d rather be writing ist ein neuer, interessanter Podcast (15 min) erschienen:How to Create User-Centered Documentation, Interview with Joe SokohlIn this podcast, Joe Sokohl explains how to create user-centered documentation by contacting, observing, and interviewing users to gather information about what types of information they use and the help deliverables they actually want.
t even read user manuals, it is imperative your examples (or training) are constructed crystal clear … and with the true user in mind. With those thoughts I invite you to listen to both of these excellent podcastsHow to Create User Centric Documentation and Training. Using Video in Training and Documenation
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What alternatives, let us say to manuals, Online Help, etc has this kind of research shown. Could you please let me know a few of them.
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Joe said he ended up creating some quick captivate demos based on specific tasks users wanted. He arranged the demos as links in a table on a web page.
Interesting talk Joe Sokohl has. I actually read a few of the recommended books and they are worth reading for sure! I especially liked the books of Donald Norman and Cooper.
interaction design blogs last blog post..When poor usability services the user experience
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Documentation is very important. Especially when to comes to something new like podcasting. We have to face it. pocasting is a new trend. Not many people are using this method to communicate and documentation is essential in helping more people.
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Thanks for the info. Lots of notes to review from your informative post.
[...] at Doc Train with his presentation changing the rules of the game to benefit the end user. I even interviewed Joe for a follow-up podcast, nodding in agreement with each sentence he [...]
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