User guides
Generally, user guides are for people who are not particularly familiar with your product, and who may also be lacking in general computing 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 might be fully comprehensive. It could contain operating instructions, maintenance instructions and technical descriptions, along with flow charts, drawings and diagrams.
Often however, a good combination of help is a user guide (or a 'getting started guide') that contains only basic information. This can be used together with some form of comprehensive online help such as WebHelp or compiled HTML. This allows you to provide all the information that users need. It avoids overburdening them with large documents, and it minimises your production costs.
RSS feed