Writing with users in mind - A short introduction on writing technical documentation for end users.

Speaker: Sander Koning

The goal of this presentation is to give a short overview of the things one has to keep in mind when writing technical documentation (for example, KDE application handbooks) for people that are not by definition technically minded - in other words: users. Common pitfalls are, for example, to use technical jargon without realising that most users just want to know how an application works and are not interested in the details, or to oversimplify things, keeping the user from really understanding the application. Of course, a short presentation cannot replace a complete course on technical writing, so the main focus will be on giving an overview of the most important points, illustrated with both made-up and real-life examples.

Sander Koning

Sander Koning has been involved with the KDE project for a couple of years now, and is currently the coordinator for the KOffice application handbooks and the maintainer of the Krita handbook. In daily life, he is a software engineer living and working in Delft, the Netherlands. Preferred ways to spend time include ultimate frisbee and live or pencil-and-paper roleplaying.

Media

Slides (PDF) (259K)
Video (Ogg) (96M)