I feel very strongly about the Web as a tool of liberty. Technology can help us because its cost keeps falling. The little guy can play.
The Web is great for cutting costs for buyers and price-competitive sellers -- the sellers loved by users.
But there is a huge problem: the never-ending warfare between programmers and new users. Let me explain by example.
In 1995, when I was taking my teenage son to look at colleges, I wound up on the Texas A&M campus on a Saturday afternoon. We went to the computer science wing. It was empty, we thought. We walked down a faculty gall. There was a professor there (Ph.D.: Harvard) with his pre-teen son. We got to talking. He knew who I was. He told me this: "Except for Steve Jobs' NeXT manuals, we find that every software manual has one error per page. It's not a typographical error. It is an actual instruction that is incorrect."
In short, the programmers, manual writers, and tech support staff did not beta-test their manuals. They still don't . . . when they even offer manuals on-line.
Programmers cannot write user's manuals. They are too familiar with their programming. They skip "intuitive" steps. They forget. They refuse to believe they forget. So, companies hire professional writers of manuals. It costs money. So, these days, there are few manuals.
There is a war between tech companies and non-technical users. The techies have contempt for the users' lack of skills, and the users have contempt for techies' theft of their money, for that's what it is: theft. No car company could get away with manuals that do not give accurate instructions. One accident, and there would be a multimillion law suit. Ten accidents, and it would be a class action suit.
The programmer thinks: "This instruction is correct. I don't have to test it. I know it's right. I wrote the code." But it's wrong. Then he takes it personally when a user shows that the instruction is wrong. Or, more likely, it's not wrong as such. But the user can't follow the steps.
The manual writer leaves out a step. He thinks the new user will take a specific series of steps. But the user can take other steps. Then the program does not work for him. The frustration grows. The war between technicians and users continues.
There was an old saying that Microsoft products don't work well until version 3 (e.g., Windows, Word). Think of the pain for users of version 1 and 2.
Negative word of mouse starts to operate. Sales suffer. Customer support gets overwhelmed.
One solution would be to require one senior officer go through a manual, page by page, to see if it's correct. That is never going to happen. Such a rule would have to be approved by senior management. "What? Actually use this product as new users would? Are you kidding? Let tech support handle this. That's their job."
Here is a real-world solution. (1) Programmers are required by management to use Camtasia Studio ($300) or even the free early version, to create step-by-step screencast videos; (2) the company assigns these screencast videos to specific in-house programmers who are (3) required to identify themselves in the video; (4) the company assigns someone to post these videos on YouTube; (5) someone in charge of the PDF manual links paragraphs to these YouTube posts; (6) so does the person in charge of on-line FAQs list; (7) the YouTube posts have an email address, so that users can report an incorrect or incomplete video to someone in charge of the manual.
Here are the advantages of a screencast-based, YouTube-based, PDF manual-based teaching system.
1. The teacher cannot skip a step; it's all on-screen.
2. The user can see everything, not just read confusing words.
3. Customer support team members can email a video link -- less phone time.
4. The user can save the video link -- no more calls.
5. A PDF manual/FAQ can be updated at any time with a better link.
6. Over time, users do most of the teaching -- for free.
Companies will at long last be forced to beta-test their instructions. They never will do this otherwise. Why not? Because technicians are psychologically incapable of testing their own work. They are like authors who forget to run a spell-check.
The company can also create a free Wiki on PB Wiki (www.pbwiki.com), to be used to cover each step in the manual. It should then encourage experienced users (1) to create screencasts with freeware -- Camstudio (www.camstudio.org) or Captivate 2 (http://www.osalt.com/captivate) or the early version of Camtasia Studio -- (2) post them on YouTube, and (3) link to the wiki.
Step by step, users will teach other users what high-tech company programmers have a moral revulsion about doing: exposing their instructions in full public view.
Step by step, users will teach other users what high-tech company programmers have a moral revulsion about doing: exposing their instructions, good or bad, in full public view.
Second, what about tech support? If companies taught new users how to download & use screencast freeware, a user could send in a screencast of any problem he can't solve. Tech support would see instantly what the problem is. Someone could email back a screencast of the solution. If this problem is new, a support staffer can create a screencast of the solution. Then he posts it. Other team members can use it to send to confused users.
Over time, 80% of the common questions would slowly stop coming in (until the next version). Tech support could deal with the complex 20% that just won't go away.
Third, what about marketing? Do you think a user who is sufficiently enthusiastic to create a YouTube video will not buy an update? I think so.
Fourth, what about senior management? That's the roadblock. That's the hard sell. But without senior management pushing this, it probably won't get done.
[An enterprising go-fer might pull this off for one product in his/her free time, as a way of getting spotted by senior management. So could a job-seeking blogster.]
If tech support assigns one person to (1) create the wiki web site for new and experienced users, (2) select a freeware screencast program, 3) create some screencasts to show users how to create a screencast, and then (4) works with the manual writer to put all this together, everyone will win.
This way, new users will get up to speed faster. They will not suffer the enormous frustration of incorrect instructions. The PDF users' manuals -- rare these days -- will actually convey useful information from the new users' point of view.
The technology is free: screencast software, Wiki sites, YouTube, and PDFs. (Note: the PDF-creation software must recognize URL links and make them live automatically.)
The labor is free after the start-up: users who believe in a product.
Access is free: the World Wide Web.
But what company has put all this together? None that I know of. If you know of one, send me a link. I will update this article.
Do this. The next time you hit a brick wall with a product -- a brick wall that the manual or Help guide doesn't remove -- send a copy of this article to customer support. Send one to sales, too.
If you can't remember where it's posted, use my site's search engine. Search for: wiki AND screencast AND manual AND YouTube AND programmers, or any combination thereof. The search engine will find it.
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