How To Write Usable User Documentation, 2nd Edition

Edmond H. Weiss, PhD, is associate professor of communications for the Graduate School of Business Administration, Fordham University, New York, and an independent consultant and lecturer on technical writing, management communication, and documentation. A fellow for the Society of Technical Communication, he is the author of 100 Writing Remedies: Practical Exercises for Technical Writing, The Writing System for Engineers and Scientists, and How to Write Usable User Documentation (originally titled How to Write a Usable User Manual). The latter is among the most frequently cited and discussed works on user documentation.

• Part 1 Toward a science of user documentation: terms - users and user documentation; needs - how user documentation fails or succeeds; usability - documentation as a system. Part 2 A structure approach to user documentation: cultures - how documentation gets written; developing documents - a structured approach; analysis - defining what publications are needed; developing a modular outline; developing a storyboard; assembly - generating the draft; editing - revising for readability and clarity; testing - developing a formal usability test; maintenance - supporting and updating user documentation. Part 3 Online documentation and internal support: user documentation without books; strategies for online documentation; afterword - into the next century.

"A readable, thought-provoking volume." - Library Quarterly