August
02
by Kaj Kandler
Steve Rubel from Micro Persuasion and Matt McAlister comment today on screencasting with advertising. They refer to Infoworld’s new series of screencasts, where they now add an advertisement trailer.
Just in case, Infoworld intends to patent this one, I claim prior art since 2003.
See http://www.conficio.com/ (wayback machine)
I did not make this for money reasons nor did I use arbitrary ads. I simply used it to make the time required to load the screencast more entertaining and to benefit the sponsor (or buyer) of the screencast.
Posted in Marketing, Screencast | 1 Comment »
November
29
by Kaj Kandler
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?
- As an end-user, learn the language of each application you use
- 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.
Posted in Documentation, Software, Writing | No Comments »
November
07
by Kaj Kandler
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.
Posted in Documentation, FAQ, Help, Screencast, Software, Support, Training, Tutorials | No Comments »
