UDS session for Ubuntu Help (Was: USB installation instructions for beginners)

[Mat Tomaszewski]

On 04/04/2010 19:31, Phil Bull wrote:
> Hi Mat,
>
> I've made an initial draft [1][2]. It's longer than originally planned,
> but should be well-suited to intermediate-level Windows users. It's
> structured so that more advanced users should be able to skim it too.
>
> An improved draft will benefit from a few screenshots, and further work
> is needed on the troubleshooting section at the end (suggestions
> welcome). At the moment it's written in OpenOffice, but getting it into
> DocBook or Mallard shouldn't take very long at all. Let me know how
> you're planning to deliver this.
>
> If anyone has a few minutes to read through or test the document I'd be
> grateful.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Phil
>
> [1] -
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Philbull?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=USB_Installation_Guide.pdf
> [2] -
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Philbull?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=USB_Installation_Guide.odt
>
>    
Thanks Phil, this is brilliant work. And this is what I propose.

Let's start thinking about help, documentation and troubleshooting as if 
it didn't yet exist (Ha! I know how hard this is, since tons of great 
work have already been done). Ubuntu is changing. We have refreshed 
branding, we're redesigning the websites and the desktop itself is 
changing. The users will be different, too, with more and more 
non-technical people (hopefully!) switching to free software. I think 
this is a unique opportunity to start thinking about those people in the 
context of their current and future questions.

One of the most common questions that people ask when they're being told 
about how great Ubuntu is, is "nobody I know is using it, where will I 
find help or support?". We're still quite far from reaching a critical 
mass of Ubuntu users that would naturally answer that concern. To get 
there, we need to use all possible means of communication, presented in 
a friendly, approachable and modern way, so that the "how do I..." or 
"what do I do to..." questions always find an answer.

I think the doc team has done some amazing work in the past and is one 
of the most important building blocks of Ubuntu's success. We should 
build on this work, expertise and enthusiasm and start thinking how we 
can make it future-proof.

During the upcoming UDS there will be, for the first time, a dedicated 
design and user experience track, driven by our team. It will be a great 
chance to meet and talk about those exciting challenges. I'd like to 
propose a working session dedicated to online help and support for 
Ubuntu, where I'd love to see as many doc team members participating as 
possible.

The structure that I think the session should have could be outlined as:

- Who are our users? When and why do they need help and support? How do 
they go about solving their problems?
- What areas of using the desktop are generating most questions?
- What structure should be applied to the online help to answer those 
questions most efficiently?
- What language and tone of voice will be the most effective?
- What visual language will be the most effective?

and finally...

- how do we get it done :)

Charline Poirier, our user research lead (CC'd), has offered her 
expertise and insight to help with this project and will also 
participate in the session. Charline will bring her enormous knowledge 
about users' needs and behaviours but is also very curious about all the 
findings of the doc team. Please feel free to engage her in your 
conversations on the mailing list.

Phil, would you like to register an appropriate blueprint for UDS? 
Please email or ping me on irc if you need any help.

Exciting stuff!

(that turned out to be a really long email. If you got this far, well 
done and thanks!)

Cheers,

Mat