Hi Elizabeth! Thanks for your comments. Hopefully I will be able to meet your expectations in documentation I am a part of in the future. (I am a new documentation contributor) You are welcome to contact me with feedback or commentary on any documentation at this point forward. -- Kam http://kamsalisbury.com GPG key: FAF1751E -----Original Message----- From: Elizabeth Ann West <elizabeth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subj: A New Look at How We Write Content for the Desktop User Guide Date: Fri Oct 3, 2008 10:18 am Size: 9K To: fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx Hello All, I am a fairly new contributor to Fedora-Docs, and a <1 year Linux user. My background is predominantly writing, so I approach the documentation more from a literary stand point than a heavily entrenched computer user. If anything, I'm a good example of the type of person you are looking to convert from proprietary software to open source. I took a hard look at the Desktop Users Guide F9, specifically the page giving instructions to install financial software. First, there was a large issue with the content-- the instructions simply would not work for a new user with Fedora 9. Second, the instructions were not clear for a brand new user to Linux. After finishing the content change, and major style changes to the Financial Software page, I deconstructed the changes and differences so others may learn from them, and contribute their own ideas and experiences. Yes, we are writing documentation for free, but we have an opportunity here as open source enthusiasts to use our piece of the project at large to further the cause and acceptance of Fedora as an operating system. These suggestions below are only for the Desktop Users Guide, the specialized guide for new users of Fedora, presumably coming from Windows, without Linux experience. For discussion purposes, this is the old page: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts/DesktopUserGuide/Financial This is the new and improved page: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User_Guide-Financial_Software Here are the major improvements I want to point out as potential "best practices" for future work on the Desktop User Guide: * The page stands completely alone for a new user. Links and everything are great, but switching to a new operating system is highly nerve-wracking. I have done this 3 times in the last 5 months, including my first switch to Linux from Windows. Experienced Linux users take so much for granted, when just something as simple as installing software from a command line is foreign (a distant memory for Windows users who remember DOS). Ease new users' frustrations by providing all needed instructions in one document page or chapter that apply to functionality, or getting something done. Certainly link to topics that may be of interest to me for other actions, but don't leave out information I need to accomplish what I want/need to do right now. It's like giving landmarks when you give someone directions for the first time, instead of letting them rely just on Mapquest, or sending them an entire road map for the state. * Stand alone chapters fit in more with how all users utilize help manuals. We're all guilty of this one. No one voluntarily reads a help manual from cover to cover unless he or she absolutely must. New and old users alike use an index for printed manuals to jump right to the information needed, and electronically search is a godsend. Working to write and offer stand alone chapters helps the users help themselves in the manner they naturally will try first. The fewer places a user must go for information, the more likely he or she can use the data effectively. * White space is visually pleasing in print and electronically. The old version crams together two sets of instructions to perform the same task, without clearly delineating when the desired result is accomplished in either situation. The new version sets off the simple sentence "[Application] is now installed on your computer." with a double line space on each side. This naturally draws the eye to the completion of the first set of instructions, without a garish ALL CAPS or other formatting scream. Breaking up complex instruction sets with this practice re-focuses the reader's attention. This is vital, as it is likely the user is hopping between windows, reading directions, and then carrying them out. Under the old instruction set, a new user from Windows very possibly could install with the command line, miss the concept that terminal and Pirut are two different methods of the same thing (after all both are new to the user), and keep following the directions ticking that box to remove the application. Over and over again until they decide it's just broken. The new page lets the reader know in the introduction two installation methods are available, and then uses white space to reinforce the distinction. * Give Graphical User Interface(GUI) example before command line, if possible. The Desktop User Guide has an audience of someone with no previous Linux experience. So, start with what is familiar, and move to the unfamiliar. The prevalence of Windows has made mainstream computer users clickers, clickers, clickers. Even shortcut commands are forsaken in the culture of right-clicking. Windows has trained people to click 'Next', a seemingly infinite numbers of times, and follow baby steps. It will naturally occur to the new users how powerful and efficient the command line is to Linux. Eventually, they will get to where they want to do something beyond the scope of the Desktop User Guide and it will only have instructions for the command line in a forum post or other documentation. Starting out, it's enough for them to know it exists and it will accomplish the same tasks as that clicking. Now, if the topic is on the command line commands, there is little reason to start with GUI. * Qualify the information the user is reading. One of the largest differences between Windows and Linux a new user immediately encounters is just the sheer increase in information his or her computer is sharing. On top of the increase, the computer also demands new decisions the user never had to make before. What do you mean I have the option of NOT installing these other packages, the ones you are telling me will make this package I do want work? People are naturally intimidated by notations they do not understand, like the numbers with decimal points under a package's name in Add/Remove Software. With instructions, leaving out actions or messages the computer will give confuses a new user. It starts questions that stop the process of learning: Is this normal? Where is this in the instructions? Why can't I find this step? Did I mess up? Going back to the landmarks concept when you give someone road directions, I added the messages Add/Remove Software gives while it is performing the user's requests. This is from my personal first experiences with Add/Remove Software, it was s......l......o......w (I fixed it when I disabled the auto-updater, not advice I want to share as a good habit to get into). Everything else, Internet, chat, was moving very briskly. As soon as I quit everything and just started Add/Remove Software it was still so painfully slow even I gave up a few times trying to install GnuCash. If I was reading instructions, the "Downloading repository information" landmark would at least reassure me the application was still working, not stuck or refreshing itself. Some other quick notes: * Changed icon info to "associated" as neither installation method auto-creates desktop launcher. Didn't get into that because it doesn't fit the "do I need it for this function" litmus test. * Clarified confusion the first page had of Live-CD versus DVD to plainly state DVD has both, does not install automagically, if you do not have Internet access use the DVD, otherwise..... list of instructions to install. * Qualified the information that suddenly appears in the bottom boxes when they tick the box as just extra information so they don't think it affects the install. * Included [y/N] step for command line so the new user isn't hesitant about answering yes. Anytime a Windows user encounters typing 'y' or 'n' it's not usually a good thing. Also, again qualified all that test the Terminal spits out is just information about the application so they don't try to keep up. * Opted to teach Search box rather than clicking Office category because Office category takes too long to populate, and new users will be turned off trying to find the exact name of the package to install from that long list when none of the icons are different. Limitations/Criticisms * Have not placed in links to those "extra words and concepts" like KDE Desktop Environment should link to the page about that. I don't quite understand yet which are new versus old, versus frozen in the document structure (many all look the same to me). I need help to add that in. * Have not taken my editor's scalpel to the wording. I know there are a number of passive sentences, but I am too close to the text right now to see the problems or areas for improvement. In a few days, I can better judge nuances in wording. * Other writers may not care for this style as it is more involved, and fights against the elitist concept of self discovery that is so common in the open source community. * Other writers and Fedora doc leaders may not care for the writing style because of the departure from the traditional, or view it as repeating the same information over and over again. * Many others I'm sure..... I invite others to weigh in on this issue. I am very open to hear criticism and realize critiquing my content is not the same as critiquing me. :) I want to offer my strong English background to help our group as a whole start to question when we work on documents: Who am I writing this for? What knowledge will they already know? Always Smiling, Elizabeth Ann West -- fedora-docs-list mailing list fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-docs-list -- fedora-docs-list mailing list fedora-docs-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-docs-list
