User guides and online help

User documentation provides information for the end user -- how to use a new system or how to accommodate enhancements to an existing system.

Building successful software systems requires close cooperation between end users and developers throughout the system development process, but end users and information systems specialists often have different priorities. For example, a system designer may want to incorporate the latest technology, but users often take a narrow view of the problems to be solved and may resist new and innovative ways to improve business processes.

Assisting change

There is often strong resistance to change among staff who have developed individual and sometimes idiosyncratic ways of working with the software tools available.

The questions users often ask are: "Why should we change the way we work? Haven't we always operated efficiently in the past? How will I cope with the new system? How can I find the time to learn a new way of doing things".

When users move from an old system to a new one they must be trained to use the new system. Users will have different degrees of proficiency with technology. While some are capable of finding their way quickly through a labyrinth of new links, labels and drop down lists, others will flounder over the simplest tasks.

How we can help ...

We can provide your end users with detailed documentation of how the system works. This can take the form of paper manuals, training workbooks, online help or interactive video demonstrations.

Manuals and workbooks

Despite various advances in online help and user assistance techniques the paper manual is probably still the first and simplest option for documentation. Organisations often start with paper manuals and then convert to online help or to instructions within the user interface as the system develops and problems are ironed out.

Paper manuals are also the technical author's first resource. Step by step procedures and instructions are gathered from a variety of sources and documented on paper before the information is repurposed to suit other forms of communication.

We offer a wide range of documentation solutions for standard operating procedures, user guides, training workbooks and policy documentation.

We can also update existing documentation to include system enhancements, or convert paper manuals to online help or user assistance.

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contact us @Renfield Communications