The user of a computer-based product typically sits in front of his terminal with a job to perform. The simpler and more unified the world of capabilities he encounters through that terminal, the easier his life will be. The screen of his terminal should be a window upon his world of problems and tasks, not the world of the engineers who built the system.It is important to specify early in the product development what the user will see. This is where the user's manual enters the picture. For a user's manual is in fact a specification of the user's product---the product he will actually come to know and experience.The conventional view of a computer-based product and its manual is straightforward, and few would think to question it.• The product is designed by Engineering and built by Manufacturing. It typically includes a box and software.• The user's manual, prepared by writers, describes this product.• The product exist independently of the manual. The engineering and writing functions are related only as an object is related to its description.
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A writer's reflections on product design
Talbott, Stephen L.
Follow ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation
, Volume 9 (1)
Association for Computing Machinery – Feb 1, 1983
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