Let's Get Brainwashed.

I was asked to help write a user guide for a new web site. I had originally volunteered to write the whole thing, beginning to end, but they didn't seem to want me involved at first. Well, then they asked me to proofread it, so I couldn't help but give some comments on the usability of it. The guide had been written with a lot of abstract words, a lot of terminology that most people wouldn't understand, left out details that a new user would need to know, and more. In fact, the biggest fault (I thought) was that it didn't say anywhere in the guide that this was for a Web site. Instead, it used fancy words like "enterprise portal" and "collaboration spaces."

So, after my initial suggestions, I was asked to rewrite it. I pulled out my red pen and scratched X's across every page and started over. (Not really.) I had a couple of fights over terminology. I am really, really against writing things that sound nice but mean nothing for the reader. If it's a user guide, readers need to know concrete details. Anyway, the guide is almost complete now, and I am happy with the way it ended up. It's not a book to bring to the beach, but it will help people when they start to use the portal - I mean Web site.

Time to hang up my superhero cape until next week's episode. Tune in!