USB installation instructions for beginners

[Mat Tomaszewski]

On 22/02/2010 17:41, Phil Bull wrote:
> Hi Mat,
>
> Sorry for the delay in replying.
>
> On Mon, 2010-02-15 at 17:53 +0000, Mat Tomaszewski wrote:
>    
>> Firstly, a bit of a background. Alejandra and I are currently in the
>> process of planning further improvements to the download section of
>> Ubuntu.com. Out of many known methods and options, one that's
>> increasingly popular and often irreplaceable (netbooks!) seems to be in
>> a need for a bit more attention. Installation via USB stick is one of
>> the great features in Ubuntu and we'd like to try and lower the adoption
>> barrier, especially having new and non-technical users in mind.
>> Currently, we link to the existing wiki page
>> (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick), which
>> mostly caters for more experienced and technically-minded users.
>>
>> The users we mostly think about as needing more precise guidance are
>> people who bought netbooks with preinstalled Windows (XP or 7) and would
>> like to try a linux-based OS. Most of them would probably need a simple
>> app to create a bootable USB drive and a set of step-by-step instructions.
>>      
> We have plans for an installation guide which would include installation
> from a USB stick, but work on the guide has slipped again (it's my
> fault, I've not had enough time to organise it). The intention is to
> pitch the guide at non-technical users, so we should end up with a
> netbook-relevant section in there that you should find useful.
>
> I can have a go at a rough draft for you in the next week or two if you
> like, but I'd need to hand over to someone else to finish-off.
>
>    

Thanks Phil, that would be a great help.

The way we're approaching things at the moment is along the lines of 
"progressive disclosure" - the most basic instructions for least 
experienced users will be placed directly on the download page. Then 
(ideally), the users looking for more detailed walkthrough, covering 
more corner cases (but still written using non-technical language) would 
find that information on help.ubuntu.com/beginnersguide (this url is 
just an example). Finally, the detailed technical documentation would be 
available for most experienced users.

How does this map with the plans you guys were sketching out?

Thanks again,

Mat