The NZ Computer Society Programming Good Practice stream met on Thursday 20th June on the topic: User Interfaces that
Work Hosted by Peace Software, led by Ian Mitchell with speaker Robert Barnes, vigorous debate erupted over the role of
technical writers.
Some considered that programmers had an essential critical role in that they did control the source and the text of all
messages while others considered that at least the scenarios (in XP: "stories") should be written by technical writers
so that they were very clear in the first place.
Should spelling mistakes in messages be considered "bugs"?
How much of the user manual should come out of the code (as in JavaDoc) where it will better reflect what the code
actually does? Should the user manual be written first as part of the specification? If so how many times will it be
updated during development? What design of GUI and dialogue would leave the application truly "intuitive" and therefore
not needing a manual? Should "usability" testing be done without a manual? Should "pop-up" help be entered or edited by
programmers, by tech-writers or both?
The result: Clearly a topic for a further meeting! Regards,
Ian Mitchell, FNZCS Ph: +64 9 528-3350 Mobile: +64 25 965-608 http://www.aboutit.co.nz http://www.xp.co.nz