Comments on: Technical Communicators as a Point of Contact between Users and Project Teams http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/05/technical-communicators-as-a-point-of-contact-between-users-and-project-teams/ Technical Communication and Other Writing Topics, by Ben Minson Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:05:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Ben http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/05/technical-communicators-as-a-point-of-contact-between-users-and-project-teams/#comment-98 Ben Tue, 27 May 2008 23:02:50 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=51#comment-98 Ted, you must do what I do in things like emails and instant messaging—reread the text after posting or sending. Thanks for the comment (and the correction). Please comment here again on the progress of your wiki as it goes forward. Ted, you must do what I do in things like emails and instant messaging—reread the text after posting or sending. Thanks for the comment (and the correction).

Please comment here again on the progress of your wiki as it goes forward.

]]> By: Ben http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/05/technical-communicators-as-a-point-of-contact-between-users-and-project-teams/#comment-97 Ben Tue, 27 May 2008 22:56:50 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=51#comment-97 I think it's a great idea. My personal concept would be to remove the comment once I incorporate the feedback. I would probably post a comment explaining why I wasn't incorporating some feedback if that's the case. But this is with the idea that the feedback appears on the page, such as with one of these posts. In other words, if the comments aren't immediately (or later) shown with the help that is being commented on, then you may not need to reply. If you don't use the feedback file method, will there be some way for users to know that their feedback has been submitted, such as a success message (on submit) or a reply from you? One tricky thing is drawing the line between feedback on the help and feedback on the product. User feedback sometimes blurs the lines, so what they think is feedback on help is actually feedback on the product. I hope that the engineers are open to that kind of feedback once you sift it out. I think it’s a great idea. My personal concept would be to remove the comment once I incorporate the feedback. I would probably post a comment explaining why I wasn’t incorporating some feedback if that’s the case. But this is with the idea that the feedback appears on the page, such as with one of these posts. In other words, if the comments aren’t immediately (or later) shown with the help that is being commented on, then you may not need to reply. If you don’t use the feedback file method, will there be some way for users to know that their feedback has been submitted, such as a success message (on submit) or a reply from you?

One tricky thing is drawing the line between feedback on the help and feedback on the product. User feedback sometimes blurs the lines, so what they think is feedback on help is actually feedback on the product. I hope that the engineers are open to that kind of feedback once you sift it out.

]]> By: Swapnil http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/05/technical-communicators-as-a-point-of-contact-between-users-and-project-teams/#comment-96 Swapnil Sun, 25 May 2008 10:07:27 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=51#comment-96 Ben, I usually check your blog/website every once in a while, because I really like the topics that you write about. Interestingly, at work, I have been given a task by my Manager to research for methods to incorporate webforms or comments box (similar to this one I am using to write this message) in our webhelp so that the users (mostly internal) can provide feedback on the online help. Initial thoughts are to either publish the comments (after validating them) in a feedback file for others to have a look at or store them in a database and collate them for our Tech Writing team to understand "what the users really want". It might be a little while before this happens, but just thought you might want to comment on this? Ben, I usually check your blog/website every once in a while, because I really like the topics that you write about.
Interestingly, at work, I have been given a task by my Manager to research for methods to incorporate webforms or comments box (similar to this one I am using to write this message) in our webhelp so that the users (mostly internal) can provide feedback on the online help.
Initial thoughts are to either publish the comments (after validating them) in a feedback file for others to have a look at or store them in a database and collate them for our Tech Writing team to understand “what the users really want”.
It might be a little while before this happens, but just thought you might want to comment on this?

]]> By: Ted http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/05/technical-communicators-as-a-point-of-contact-between-users-and-project-teams/#comment-95 Ted Sat, 24 May 2008 16:40:46 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=51#comment-95 Oops -- case in point. Misplaced comma turns sentence to gibberish. I meant to put a comma after "on enough pages" and not after "users hit that link." Oops — case in point. Misplaced comma turns sentence to gibberish. I meant to put a comma after “on enough pages” and not after “users hit that link.”

]]> By: Ted http://www.gryphonmountain.net/2008/05/technical-communicators-as-a-point-of-contact-between-users-and-project-teams/#comment-94 Ted Sat, 24 May 2008 16:38:22 +0000 http://www.gryphonmountain.net/?p=51#comment-94 Ben, we are taking much the same approach to two-way communication as you. I want an easy way for users to influence the content, but I also want content that meets professional standards. So I asked a developer to throw together a javascript snippet that would read the title of the page it's on, convert it to a wiki URL on our site, and print a link to that URL on the bottom of the page. (The link text is something like "Talk back to us.") Ideally, if enough users hit that link, on enough pages a parallel help system could take shape containing only the pages where users have had questions or contributions. We'll see how that works when we roll it out next month. Ben, we are taking much the same approach to two-way communication as you. I want an easy way for users to influence the content, but I also want content that meets professional standards. So I asked a developer to throw together a javascript snippet that would read the title of the page it’s on, convert it to a wiki URL on our site, and print a link to that URL on the bottom of the page. (The link text is something like “Talk back to us.”) Ideally, if enough users hit that link, on enough pages a parallel help system could take shape containing only the pages where users have had questions or contributions. We’ll see how that works when we roll it out next month.

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