4 posts tagged with "writing"

The idea for this post was prompted by Daniel Beck’s blog post What do you say to "no one reads the docs?". In it, he proposed opening an inquiry and responding with "Have you been interviewing users? What else have they been telling you?".

I thought of two alternative answers:

• Everyone scans the docs.
• That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Everyone scans the docs​

It’s true, no one reads the docs (except for technical writers) — because they’re not meant to be read like a bedtime story or an article to pass time. Users scan the docs, looking for the piece of information they need to complete a task. In this case, having users actually read the docs would in fact be a sign that the docs are not well structured, and users have a hard time finding the information they need.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing​

In this case, I interpret “no one reads the docs” as docs pages that get low traffic (few page views). This could indicate that the product is so simple or intuitive that users don’t need support to navigate it. Congratulations!

Books, podcasts, and courses to help technical writers hone their writing skills and collaborate with DevRel and Marketing teams.

The theme, extensions, and settings I use in my daily job.

As a technical writer creating tutorials and courses for users of all levels, I'm constantly re-evaluating my content, looking for ways to make it more accessible and easy to understand. I had one such oportunity yesterday, when I attended the workshop Improve Your Writing Using Accessible Language, held by Amy Dickens and organized by You Got This. In this post, I'll share with you my learnings from the workshop, combining the speaker's slides with my personal notes.