Monday, November 29, 2004

About Computer Jargon

Today I want to confess, I'm guilty as anybody else. I speak computer jargon.

Computer and software are a business of precision. We expect the machines to work reliably and predictably. That implies one has to talk about their functions in a precise manner.

However, this makes using computers a challenge, because it is complex to talk precisely about their behavior. Software developers, and tech writers in particular, do define a language around their creation and they use it. Naturally, end users do not speak that language. Hence the communication problems.

There is a solution to this. As with any other language too, one party has to learn the language of the other. Which one do you prefer?

  1. As an end-user, learn the language of each application you use
  2. Ask the publisher/developer of the software to understand the language(s) their end-users speak
Please comment and tell us why you prefer the particular solution.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Transforming Computer Jargon into Visual Help

I love to help people with their computers. I also love to solve problems.

The current state of computer 'online' help is a problem. Wouldn't you agree? Users have given up on using the help-menu in software applications. The typical complain goes:

1) I can't find what I'm looking for!
2) If I find something, I have a hard time understanding the prose!

I set out to solve this problem by creating visual help.