Everything malfunctions eventually.
When it does you rely on troubleshooting sections in docs to solve your problems.
-
You don’t understand how your audience scans your docs.
-
You don’t focus on symptoms.
-
You don’t consider how they might be feeling at the time.
-
You don’t solve their problem!
-
Couldn’t find the symptom: "flashing status light"
-
Didn’t emphathise with my mental state: "frustrated"
-
Used Jargon: "Interlock Protection" (dude WTF),
-
…blender will need to be reset if the interlock is not properly engaged.
It took them two days to get back to me.
They asked me for my serial number?
What does that have to do with status lights?
Frustration > Indifference > TECH WRITING!!!!
The status light on your blender blinks at different rates (slow, solid, fast).
This happens when the blender bowl interlock or temperature sensors detect a problem.
You can often solve these problems by reading the explanation and troubleshooting steps for each light sequence on page 8 of this manual.
Troubleshooting is useless if it doesn’t help your customers solve problems in their language.
Talk to your users.
Understand their needs.
Fix their problems.