Who is our target audience
Hi,
to write a good user guide/manual we need to determine/identify the target audience. I think it'll end up in a couple of user manuals that we're going to write, or we select just one. So the outcome of this discussion must be 'who are target audience, what level of computer and Joomla! experience do they have and how are they going to use the user manual'. When the target audience is determined we can select the topics we want to cover.
I took this as a resource (just the first hit on Google) about 'identifying the audience': http://www.klariti.com/technical-writing/User-Guides-Tutorial.shtml
to write a good user guide/manual we need to determine/identify the target audience. I think it'll end up in a couple of user manuals that we're going to write, or we select just one. So the outcome of this discussion must be 'who are target audience, what level of computer and Joomla! experience do they have and how are they going to use the user manual'. When the target audience is determined we can select the topics we want to cover.
I took this as a resource (just the first hit on Google) about 'identifying the audience': http://www.klariti.com/technical-writing/User-Guides-Tutorial.shtml
Views: 22
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tony Davis on -
That is an excellent link, thank you, Carolien.
I will do some work on it to offer it here. -
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Permalink Reply by Bo Astrup on -
I totally agree, might even end up with three manuals.
1. Site builders
2. Administrators
3. Content providers (for those who "only" add content: write articles, upload photos and such.) -
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Permalink Reply by Oleg Nesterov on -
I strongly believe that this should not be a manual for all levels and type of users. Having different manuals for end-users and developers (if someone can write it) would be fine.
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Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on
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Yes, this is not a developers group, for certain. It will be user interface driven documentation.
Should you and I (and whomever else wants to jump in?) work on a Joomla! 1.6 Developer Guide?
I can create another group. -
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Permalink Reply by Tony Davis on
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I, too, believe it should not be a manual for all levels.
However, I do believe there should be strong cross referencing between the levels so that the reader can zoom in or out on detail to arrive at that level which most meets their needs. This is achievable.
It is clear that the initial TOC is only an overview of the actual structure. It will need to be a hierarchy of pages or it will be impossible to use. As the hierarchy develops it will be easier to see how the multi level cross referencing can be achieved. I will do a bit of that later today. -
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The Joomla! User Guide TOC looks great! It covers the User Interface - Core Features - how to use them when creating a Web site. That's a good scope for this group. I'd say, let's get moving on it if others like the TOC Scope you mapped out.
A Joomla! Developer Guide will be about the code. Building various Extension Types and the API. I do not see any overlap between those two guides or need to coordinate at those levels. It's not a skill level thing, it's more of a skill type. I would recommend, Tony, that this team not address a developer guide. We need coders to do that - and will likely create another group if we find interested parties. -
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