[documentation] Babies, Spoons, Food and Funny Faces

[themacgeek]

I have spent the better part of 4 days now reading through the Drupal  
documentation, participating in IRC chats, reading forums and hunting  
the web for Drupal related sites.  During this time I have met and  
spoke with some wonderful people, learned A LOT about Drupal and its  
capabilities, and discovered that communities can do more than any  
one person ever can.

After having experience all of these things, I am left with one thought:

A Training System Is Needed

As explained my earlier post today, I have been a software trainer  
for almost 10 years now.  And if there is one thing I have learned,  
it is that books and words (of which Drupal has a great resource of)  
will only help a certain percentage of people reach full competency  
with any software package or skill set.  Many, if not most, need  
interactive, step by step teaching to fully grasp an idea or develop  
a set of skills. Additionally, that teaching has to be tailored to  
the different types of individuals and their needs.

As I recently discussed with a new user to Drupal, user documentation  
has to be structured as if you were feeding a baby.

There are three essential things you have to have:

1) A baby (more than we can count)
2) A spoon (I always loved the Tigger spoon)
3) Food that tastes good (no creamed peas please)
4) A method for feeding (complete with buzzing sounds and moving arms)

In the case of Drupal there are plenty of babies (newbies) and the  
spoon is very nice (Drupal.org).  The food is very healthy and  
nourishing (Current Documentation) but many would say it does not  
taste real good (Lack of User Friendliness). And as far as I can  
tell, the methods for feeding (Training) are limited or scattered.

For the sake of not delving into the marketing aspects of Drupal I  
will preface the next section with the assumption that the user has  
decided to use Drupal for building their site.

The Baby

Our baby is 8 months (knows what FTP is but not MYSQL) old and has  
bright green hair and is generally a wild an woolly type (jumps into  
things head first without reading the instructions).  He likes to  
throw food and loves to laugh (not good at listening to advice).  
Though he is not keen on eating carrots (Intro Documentation), he  
will eat it if it is served with a bright red spoon (Special Section  
for Green Hair Kids) while having "The Barney Song" sang to him  
(Interactive Intro Documentation Video).

The Spoon

The spoon is that aspect of feeding time that every baby sees and  
associates with the food.  It is important that it not be too big or  
too small.  It has to be attractive but not too shinny (shinny things  
can scare some babies).  It should be friendly and fun.

Now some will say, "We cannot build special Spoons for every Baby",  
and I would agree.  But I do think that a certain effort can be made  
to identify the what kinds of babies we have and what kinds of spoons  
the majority of them will eat from and with what method.

The Food

Unfortunately the food is something that is less flexible, but is  
certainly something that we can easily separate into certain  
classifications based on the age of the baby. No steak for those  
under 1 year, bologna is ok for those 6 months to one year (so long  
as they are watched and don't choke), and everything that comes in a  
jar for those under 6 months.

Some babies will be older and they maybe able to handle a pizza crust  
or two ... but others will need everything pureed before they can eat  
it.

The idea of categorizing training content based on complexity is  
something that software companies and technical sources have been  
doing for ages.  Even the modern education system is set up this  
way.  Easy stuff at first and build up through training/education as  
the user grows in age.

The Method

Now comes the method, buzzing sounds, weird faces and sing songs that  
all make eating the food so much more fun.  Maybe that is part of the  
issue, lack of fun.  Though eating is not always something babies  
want to do, it is essential for growth and energy.

The method will be the hardest part within the Drupal community as it  
will require lots of planning and a very defined methodology. It will  
require a lot of energy for all that arm flying (recording screenshot  
tutorials with Audio) and funny face making (creating attractive  
graphics and user friendly copy). At first we may only need to try  
and take on caring the youngest babies.  Heck we may find that those  
over 6 months can goto the store, buy their own food and cook eggs on  
the stove while changing their own diaper.

But first we have to get them there.  I am more than willing to help  
make this happen.

themacgeek


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