Writing 200 Page Manuals That No One Will Read is Insane
This morning I read a post by Tom Johnson titled “If No One Reads the Manual, That’s Okay”. In it the author describes how he is writing a 200 page manual that no one will ever read and that somehow that is all right.
That no one will read a 200 page manual is perfectly OK. That people are still writing them is insane.
In the comments of the post, some technical writers were making the case that users needed to read the manual. But it doesn’t matter what you think users should do, only what they will do. The real problem here is that technical writers keep doing the same thing and expecting different results (the definition of insanity).
Here’s a suggestion, instead of talking about how people should use the content you create start trying to figure out why they aren’t using it.
And then fix it.
Don’t accept things the way they are.
Make your content useful and make it accessible when and where the user needs it.
Here are some questions to ask yourself (these all relate specifically to software manuals):
What happens when a user doesn’t read the manual? One of the things they do is contact support. Develop and deliver your documentation in a way that can be used in a support situation.
What are your users asking? Are they asking “Could I please have an overview of the Upload tab?” or “How do I upload a file?” Is your documentation structured around the questions your users have or the way your application is organized? Which would your user prefer? Which would be most useful to your users and your organization?
Where do users ask questions? They call, email, post to message boards and use Twitter. Can you deliver the content your users need (your manual) in the places where they are asking the questions?
These are the questions technical writers need to be asking themselves if they want to move beyond just fulfilling requirements to really adding value to their organizations.
Several months ago we recorded a webinar on this exact subject called Why Your Documentation Stinks and How to Fix It. Check it out if you want some new ideas on how to get people to read the documentation you write.
