Hello Raj, Maybe you are not asking the correct question. Should your question be, "Should I seriously consider feedback from both reviewers?"
Before you ever start writing the manual you should be asking yourself, "Who exactly is my correct audience?" You need to define the audience along with your goals (desired outcomes) when you are designing the project. You may need an installation guide as either a separate document or as a section in the user guide. Get someone to review that while they are installing the software from the beginning. Feedback involves many different aspects such as usability, validity, layout, readability, and tone. You don't necessarily have to have access to the application to provide valuable feedback for each aspect. Each of your two reviewers can provide a different, and potentially valuable, perspective on the manual. Certainly, the reviewer that has the software available can provide better validation of manual. That person can make sure you have described the application's features and functions accurately. The user without access to the application cannot be expected to validate anything, but they can provide information on your writing style, correct grammar, and usability to some degree. You just have to be careful how you evaluate the feedback from this group. You really have to consider each case and how the lack of access to the software can influence their comments. The best reviewers are those who fit the description of your target audience. If you can, recruit people who will be beta testing the application. Ideally, those people will be somewhat unfamiliar with the product and generally fall somewhere within the defined target audience. Well, that's kind of the theory of beta testing--a limited group of people who would potentially use the application and have them put it through its paces. If it works in real life, who knows? Regardless, that group can catch a majority of the bugs in your documentation prior to the official product release. Tom Johnson 231-944-7454 tajohn...@microlinetc.com -----Original Message----- From: tcp-boun...@techcommpros.com [mailto:tcp-boun...@techcommpros.com] On Behalf Of raj nair Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 10:06 AM To: tcp@techcommpros.com Subject: [TCP] Writing a user manual Imagine that I give a user manual to a potential user to read it without installing or using the application. Simultaneously, I give the same document to another person, who has installed the application and can verify the information in the user manual. In an ideal situation, who exactly is my correct audience? Is it the guy with the installed application and user manual, or the other one? Also, whose feedback should I take seriously? I just want to know how you will deal with such a situation. ______________________________________________ ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. Download Free Trial. www.doctohelp.comhttp://www.techcommpros.com/componentone/ Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email t...@techcommpros.com. Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-subscr...@techcommpros.com Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-unsubscr...@techcommpros.com Need help? Contact listad...@techcommpros.com Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
