Your Documentation & Localisation Partner

Technical Documentation

Why technical product documentation is so important

There are a number of benefits of having good product documentation:

  • It adds value so your customers get a more professional product.
  • It ensures customers can perform basic tasks efficiently, saving you time and money because you are not having to field unnecessary phone calls and enquiries to your support team.
  • It forms the basis of training courses, if your customers prefer personal training clases, which can provide you with an additional income stream.
  • It explains tasks from the users' point of view, how users can get their tasks done easily and most efficiently.

In short: Good documentation makes your customers and your support team happy. Bad documentation can lead to accidents, many unnecessary support calls and, in the worst case, a bad reputation.

Technical documentation services come in two flavours: Firstly, writing documentation from scratch for a new software product. Secondly, reviewing existing documentation to ensure it provides the best information for your users about how to best use your product.

Your product is ready for release — But wait, where is the documentation?

Yes, this does happen more often than you might think. But having your developers writing user documentation is NOT the answer, even if it looks like a nice cheap solution. However, they generally lack the specialist communication skills required to write a good document and are too close to it to see the software in the way your users do: software developers explain how the software works but users want to know how to use it to get their tasks done.

If you want your users to be able to use your product without banging their heads against the wall, your best bet is to get a technical writer on board, either as a full time employee or as a contractor.

This is where I come in — I can write and review your documentation for you

I develop and create user-friendly and cost-efficient documentation for your product — from the underlying didactic concept through to the detailed structure. However, be forewarned: As my documentation is focused on the target group, that is, the users, the designed solution is most possibly not the one you would have chosen. This is due to the simple fact that you have special product knowledge that your users do not have — and probably not interested in either — and you are not part of the target group. Your users have different requirements and they look differently at your software than you do. It mainly comes down to one point: They are not interested in how your software works, they are interested in how to use it to make their lives and their work easier.

No matter how wonderful a particular product might be, if it has poor documentation it is highly unlikely that it will be fully and properly utilised. Users who buy your product need to easily find out how to use what they have bought without you being there telling them what to do. If this is not the case, either your support team is inundated with calls or your product is just abandoned by the frustrated users.

Writing clear, accurate and useful documentation for users is a specialist skill. I am a technical writing specialist and letting me produce or review your product manuals and user guides allows your developers to do what they do best: develop your product.

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