Your Writing Dept Blog Creating quality user documentation and putting the “M” in RTFM.

Do you read user manuals?

An interesting question was posted on LinkedIn. My original post:

“I always look at the product manual to see how well it was written and how it was designed. When making a major purchase, I usually go to the company’s web site to see if the manual is available as a download before I make the purchase. My opinion is that a well-written manual equates to a well built and supported product. I save manuals in a file for future use for what to do and what not to do when writing a user manual. Learn from the good and avoid what does not work.”

But then I got to thinking about how product design plays an important role in the need, or lack of need, for documentation. A poorly designed product with difficult to understand functionality would require more detailed documentation before the user is competent with the product, while a well designed product would allow for the user to learn by using (or, at least we should be able to assume).

So, my answer would have to be based on the extent to which the product was designed with the user in mind.

More on this at the I’d Rather Be Writing Technical Communication Blog