"I don't read instructions..."

re: "I don't read instructions..."

Blake Handler — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 01:50:50 GMT

Because everyone learns differently (i.e. visually, aurally, tactually) – not to mention their existing knowledge level – there’s never going to be a “single” method for instruction.

While confusing to some, I’m pleased that there are multiple methods to perform tasks in Office. Some people like to use pull-down menus, others like pushing toolbars, and some know the keyboard & mouse-click shortcuts.

re: "I don't read instructions..."

Jeanie Decker — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:32:08 GMT

Exactly, Blake. So in practical terms, what can we offer that will meet some/most needs of some/most people...it can be tough letting go of the ideal of satisfying everyone all the time. (Not that it's ever happened, of course)

re: "I don't read instructions..."

Blake Handler — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 07:55:40 GMT

My only analogy for a good “Help System” is that it be like a excellent wait staff at a restaurant.

One waiter can not juggle enough tasks – it’s preferable to have additional people to help with the bread, wine, water But too many waiters become overwhelming as can too much help!

The computer’s “help systems” should behave like a superb waiter: politely obedient and able to anticipate some of my basic needs.

The supporting help (i.e. bubble-help, mouse-over text, pop-ups, voice cues) should only appear in the same context of the person bringing me my bread, water, wine, clean-up) – I should hardly notice that they are there!

And yes, I think that the help system should scale up – meaning when more people arrive at the restaurant, my waiter can defer to the “Head Waiter” etc – in this case a help system, it too needs to scale up when more “authors” join a document. Maybe a wiki-type help is appended to the document?

I spend a great deal of time looking for information to support Microsoft products – I even brought all of your help resources into one place! (My friends love that they don’t have to hunt around your website) I’d love your comments.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/bhandler/Blog/cns!1pt1v0Q4vD8jSvNS4lqdAuug!429.entry

re: "I don't read instructions..."

Jeanie Decker — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:22:08 GMT

Great collection of resources, Blake! I agree that finding the information is the big challenge -- so much is out there, it's just hard to find. Nice of you to do the hunting for the rest of us :-) I like the restaurant analogy too.

I'm still playing with ideas on how we could take advantage of wiki. Another content team used wiki for its development phase - I have to remember where I heard that and track them down to find out how successful it was...

re: "I don't read instructions..."

Blake Handler — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 10:31:39 GMT

Thanks so much for your comments -- I was honored that you looked at my blog!!!

Microsoft WiKi? That would probably be Channel 9
http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/