[documentation] Babies, Spoons, Food and Funny Faces

[Kieran Lal]

This is interesting.  It's obviously a lot of work.  I suggest  
picking a simple but popular topic to train people on.  The two most  
common administration tasks are: Managing content such as comments,  
and installing new modules.

If you could put together a small prototype training on either of  
those topics that would be interesting.

Cheers,
Kieran
On Jan 5, 2006, at 10:46 PM, themacgeek wrote:

> 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
>
>
> -- 
> [ documentation | http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/documentation ]

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