Quote:
Originally Posted by stomachmonkey
Actually, having the engineers write simple set up and use documentation, (which is different from technical documentation) is how we end up with poorly written instructions.
For one, they think differently than the average user and two, their familiarity with the product leads to them ignoring stuff that from their perspective "should be obvious".
We always had a dedicated writer for instructions who developed those instructions from the point of a first time user.
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We had that (dedicated writing group) also but they were continuously frustrated by not getting access to the engineers or the product. Our instructions eventually came out pretty good. However, in a small company looking to save the last penny I bet there is not a dedicated tech. writing group. I don't know what is done these days maybe the user manuals are all out sourced. The very large company I worked for eventually out sourced the manuals to get those people off the payroll.