FIT2043 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: System Administrator, Power User
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
L21 - Writing for End Users
End Users
● General user
● Power user
● System administrator
● Manager
Types of User Documentation
● Quick start guides
○ Walk the user through a typical usage scenario for software
○ If installation is straightforward, the doubles as an installation guide
● Manuals
○ Help users use the software
○ Written in a task focused manner
■ Clear and simple
■ Consistent terminology
■ Focus on the reader
○ What is in it?
■ instruction/walkthroughs for likely usage scenarios
■ Overview of the system
● Who it’s for and what it does
■ Screenshots to make things clear
■ Any other relevant material
● Reference guides
■ Tell the reader what each part of the system does
■ Often packaged with user manuals
■ Focuses on one topic at a time
○ Troubleshooting guides
■ Help users diagnose and fix faults
■ Try to anticipate common problems and describe their symptoms in an
accessible way
○ UI text
■ Helps users achieve their goals
● System Administrators
○ People who are responsible for installing, configuring and maintaining your
software
○ Installation guides
■ If straightforward: write it the same way as you would for naive end
users
■ QA: make sure test deployment is done on al target platforms
■ Can be highly complex: if so maybe not geta naive end user to install it
○ Upgrade guides
■ Step-by-step set off instructions for rolling out the updated system
■ System Admin:
● Needs to know how
to do the upgrade
■ End Users:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
