User guides
Usually, user guides are for people who do not know your product, and who may also have low IT skills.
Typically, these users need:
- Task based step-by-step instructions
- Little or no theory and explanation
- Instruction on the most common uses of the product
Sometimes, a user guide may be comprehensive. It may contain operating instructions, maintenance instructions, technical descriptions, flow charts, drawings, and diagrams.
Usually, a good combination of documentation is a user guide (or a 'getting started guide') that contains only basic information, and some type of comprehensive online help such as WebHelp or compiled HTML. This lets you give all the information that users need. It avoids overburdening them with large documents, and it decreases your production costs.
RSS feed