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How To Write Manuals as a Developer
A guide on quickly setting up a solid manual
I know, I know, user documentation is not the most exciting topic for developers. However, you have to make sure that your product does not cause any harm to your users — physically or in terms of damaged property. Data loss, malfunction of a machine, and other issues can lead to serious legal claims.
This story will not make you a professional technical writer, nor will it ensure that you have covered all legal requirements for your product. But it will give you a rough understanding of how to create solid content that will help your user operate your software efficiently.
In this story, I will share with you my almost ten years of technical writing experience. It covers the needs of non-technical writers.
Without any further ado, let us start writing.
Understand Your Target Group
Before writing content, you need to understand your target group. Who will use your product?
I will not explain how to complete a target group analysis since you can easily Google this yourself. Ultimately, think about the needs of your users and how these needs will affect your user manual.
To make it easier to understand, here are a few examples of how the target group could affect your manual:
- If you know your target group consists of the elderly, use a font size easily readable by people with poor sight.
- If your target group consists of developers, you do not have to explain how to perform basic steps on a Windows operating system.
- If you write for dyslexic readers, write in short sentences and use simple terms.
This list is by no means even close to complete. It only shows that you need to understand your readers to create readable content — readable by them, not by you!
Understand How the Target Groups Use Your Product
Once you know the users, you need to learn how they will use your product. Good user documentation should always focus on the user instead of just explaining the features of the product. Technical writers speak of…
