[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Improved writing -- who's going to pay for it?
At 23:51 12/10/2000, Rick JELLIFFE wrote: >Linda van den Brink wrote: > > > Whereas a tech writer, who is inside > > the organization, would presumably have good communication lines to the > > editors of specs and could ask them 'what is meant here' and THEN come up > > with a good rewrite. > >So would people be happier with > * a much more comprehensive Primer > * splitting the Structures draft into two or three parts that were >more > self contained > * a much terser algorithmic/logical treatment of the subject, less > comprehensible to Joe Database but smaller and more precise > * a rewrite of structures based on the concrete syntax rather than > having the abstract components first > >Knowing some specifics might be helpful. Documents have "usability" issues in the same way as online interfaces. Is it therefore not sensible to do "usability testing" (involving real users) on documents? Really, this list (with all it's best intentions) can solve this problem. What we need is some real research, followed by practical problem solving, involving a representative sample of actual users. (I haven't just made this idea up: have a look at many of the respected usability books for a discussion of these concepts.) J ------------------------- James Robertson Step Two Designs Pty Ltd SGML, XML & HTML Consultancy Illumination: an out-of-the-box Intranet solution http://www.steptwo.com.au/ jamesr@s...
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