[pmwiki-users] Re: Re: Re: Reader docs (Was: audiences revisited or revised ???)

chr at home.se chr at home.se
Sat Aug 6 17:03:48 CDT 2005


On Sat, 6 Aug 2005, H. Fox wrote:

> On 8/5/05, Radu <radu at monicsoft.net> wrote:
> > Anyway, what does a reader care about the list of uploads? If the
> > readers reach an upload and they want the file, they can click it to
> > get it, like in any normal web page. Same as for the sidebar links;
> > we don't have to give the reader our terminology for something unless
> > it's wiki-specific.
> > 
> > So let's agree to disagree for now and wait for other people's
> > opinions on this :)
> 
> Let me advocate for the reader for a moment.
> 
> A reader of a web site is looking for content.  The easier it is to
> get the content, the better the site is designed.  It should Just
> Work. If a navigation tool needs to be explained in documentation then
> it needs to be refactored until it's usable without any documentation.

I might agree on the navigation tool, but I suspect that a GUI will only
be efficient at explaining a few kinds of techniques for finding the
content. Therefore, I still see the need for "tutorials" and explaining
concepts such as categories. This might of course be integrated wih GUI -
popups when holding the mouse over a wiki trail or category link comes to
mind.

> Ideally readers shouldn't see anything that gets in the way of the
> content they came for.  There's no reason for them to know or care that
> the site is a wiki unless they might become authors.

That sort of reminds me of the idea of having different modes (skins) for 
readers, auhors and administrators. Maybe something to think more of?

> PmWiki documentation should be oriented toward authors and operators,
> not readers.  Just to be clear, I'm not saying reader docs shouldn't be
> written, I'm suggesting they ultimately shouldn't be necessary if the
> skin, the wiki engine, and to some degree the content, are done well.

It'd be nice if this can be made to happen. I would however think of it 
more as *embedding* the readers "documentation" in the UI. Still, I can't 
quite see how abstract concepts such as group/pages and categories can be 
made apparent directly from the GUI. Simple usage sure will be apparent, 
but what about more advanced stuff. 

Maybe we what we need for readers is a page with tips on techniques for 
finding information on the wiki?

Btw, I still think we'll nead "reader" documentation for development
purposes, with descriptions of how it should work, and ideas on how the
interface can be improved in the future.

regards
/Christian


-- 
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44               http://www.md.kth.se/~chr






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