From Ars Technica Judge: Microsoft documentation unfit for US consumption By John Timmer | Published: September 25, 2008 – 07:50PM CT Microsoft may have made a big push to settle many of the antitrust actions facing it around the globe, but those efforts have run up against a major stumbling block: the company’s inability to… Read more »
Cherryleaf Blog
User Assistance – You’ve come a long way baby?
The MgmtSIG digest pointed me towards the Bitsavers’ Software Archive (http://www.bitsavers.org/), which stores documentation and software for minicomputers and mainframes from the 1950s -1980s. It shows how far user assistance has come, particularly in terms of graphic design. However, there are still areas where we could learn from the past. The digest referenced MiTTS (Minimalist… Read more »
How can we make online Help as natural as breathing?
One of the themes of every Help related conference is that some users are reluctant to use Help. Help, as a word, implies failure and, it is said, Microsoft spent a lot of time trying unsuccessfully to come up with a better word to use. Recently, I was pointed towards a presentation by Professor Dan… Read more »
What’s brewing with MadCap and DITA?
MadCap are sending out a mailing to its database today with the words: MadCap DITA10-29-08 The link sends you to the MadCap Web site, but provides no other information. I guess we’ll have to wait a week until we know more.
UA Conference Notes
Last week, we attended, exhibited and spoke at the UA conference Europe 08. It was probably the best conference I’ve attended. 1. There were some excellent case studies from Sonia Fuga of Northgate, Rachel Potts and Brian Harris of Red-Gate Software and Matthew Ellison (concerning IBM). Northgate’s approach of using WordPress for ratings and commenting… Read more »