Re: Concept - Task ratio

Subject: Re: Concept - Task ratio
From: Laura Lemay <lemay -at- lauralemay -dot- com>
To: John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 08:22:39 -0800


A bunch of years ago I worked for TiVo, the DVR company. Although I
didn't work directly for the customer support and knowledge base
people, I worked right next to that group, and I got a good feel for
how they designed things. They had a handful of writers designing and
writing the content who put a lot of thought into the structure. The
knowledgebase was used both for the customer support people on the
phone, and also online -- you can see the knowledgebase here:

http://support.tivo.com/app/home

It is 99% task-based. No concepts at all. Browsing around it for a
little while just now I found two articles with concepts, and they
were a single paragraph apiece.

Laura

On Feb 2, 2011, at 7:47 AM, John Posada wrote:

> Hi, guys...As I've said, I've been doing an analysis of our customer
> support knowledgebase to look for areas of improvement.
>
> I've introduced the concept modeled after the DITA methodology of
> Concept/Task/Reference and it has caught on strong.
>
> My question...for online help or web based help for consumer-type
> services, specifically phone service, if you have thought about it, do
> you find that you found a ratio of concept to task that worked out
> best for you?
>
> For instance, I'm proposing the premise that since this is for a
> support site, we should be doing less explaining issues compared to
> more presenting procedures on how to do and fix things; the logic
> being that the average telephone customer doesn't care as much about
> how something works as they do with getting it to work so they can
> make their call and get on with their life.
>
> Keep in mind, I'm not writing for the techy geek, but for the average
> Joe Q Public with a telephone.
>
> Has anyone else thought about this and if so, know of any best
> practices that supports this premise?
> --
> John Posada
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-
> To-Help.
> Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
> Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
> http://www.doctohelp.com
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as lemay -at- lauralemay -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/lemay%40lauralemay.com
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
> http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.
>
> Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


References:
Concept - Task ratio: From: John Posada

Previous by Author: Re: "How to Write a Sentence"
Next by Author: Re: Customer-friendly word for "landline"
Previous by Thread: Re: Concept - Task ratio
Next by Thread: Re: Concept - Task ratio


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads