Intranet User Guides
When I first got involved with corporate software every vendor that sold products that cost anything more than a few hundred pounds produced user guides. ERP software user guides still need a fork lift truck to get them through the door.
With the drive for intuitive software and the focus on usability should a great intranet system like Claromentis even produce user guides?
Should they be replaced by access to specifications, WIKIs and even testing plans? Or known issues systems?
Basically users probably dont read user guides, so why do vendors of browser based software feel obliged to keep producing them?
I would be interested in any viewpoints at all, as we have recently had some lively debates at Claromentis about whether we should continue to produce them, and if we do - are we actually using documentation as a way to internally review the application or really to help a user who couldn’t work out that to ‘add a document’ you need to click on a link labeled ‘add a document’?
Admin guides are of course an entirely different matter..
In our experience, clients still expect something, but I’m not sure what is most useful for them and why. Is a user guide or a user manual better? What is the difference between the two?
Putting my client hat on, as an end user, I would like to see some simple custom manuals that shows me the basics, then further inline help options. Everything should be included as much as possible in the software.