KDE Documentation Survey

[Cornelius Schumacher]

When thinking about how to improve the KDE documentation situation, I realized
that I don't really know a lot about how people use our documentation and
what our user's requirements actually are.

What about doing a survey and ask users about their current use of
documentation and their ideas how it could be improved?

We could ask questions to find out:
- How do users get help?
- How frequently do users use the different tools and systems (KHelpcenter,
what's this help, online manuals, userbase, forums, google, etc.)
- Do users have Internet connections?
- Do users need printable manuals?
- Would users be willing to contribute to documentation?
- What kind of tools and formats do documentation contributors prefer?
- How much do users rely on translated manuals?
- What parts of the manuals are users using?
- What would users like to see in addition to what we already have?

How do you like this idea?

--
Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@...>
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2009/10/26 Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@...>:

> When thinking about how to improve the KDE documentation situation, I realized
> that I don't really know a lot about how people use our documentation and
> what our user's requirements actually are.
>
> What about doing a survey and ask users about their current use of
> documentation and their ideas how it could be improved?
>
> We could ask questions to find out:
> - How do users get help?
> - How frequently do users use the different tools and systems (KHelpcenter,
> what's this help, online manuals, userbase, forums, google, etc.)
> - Do users have Internet connections?
> - Do users need printable manuals?
> - Would users be willing to contribute to documentation?
> - What kind of tools and formats do documentation contributors prefer?
> - How much do users rely on translated manuals?
> - What parts of the manuals are users using?
> - What would users like to see in addition to what we already have?
>
> How do you like this idea?
>

Note we have a poll on the forums asking about khc, see
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=82794
The number of votes is not yet impressive, but i wanted to just add
that to this topic.

Regards,
--
Ingo Malchow
KDE Community Forums Administrator
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[Arturo Silva]

================================
Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
================================

> When thinking about how to improve the KDE documentation situation, I realized
> that I don't really know a lot about how people use our documentation and
> what our user's requirements actually are.
>
> What about doing a survey and ask users about their current use of
> documentation and their ideas how it could be improved?
>
> We could ask questions to find out:
> - How do users get help?
> - How frequently do users use the different tools and systems (KHelpcenter,
> what's this help, online manuals, userbase, forums, google, etc.)
> - Do users have Internet connections?
> - Do users need printable manuals?
> - Would users be willing to contribute to documentation?
> - What kind of tools and formats do documentation contributors prefer?
> - How much do users rely on translated manuals?
> - What parts of the manuals are users using?
> - What would users like to see in addition to what we already have?
>
> How do you like this idea?
>

I like the idea as long as such a survey does get a good amount of
exposure (e.g., not limtied to a forum requiring registration).  A few
months back (long before I came here) I remember doing surveys which
allowed me to "vote" for the best Oxygen icons for K3b and KDevelop --
and despite the limited options and lack of comment fields, I actually
thought it was a wonderful idea.  It was easy to use, brief and
informative and relatively painless to participate in.  I'm not sure
if the amount of responses with this was any better, but I wouldn't be
surprised if the turnout was relatively impressive.

However, I only really knew about them because they were advertised in
the major Linux online news sites -- otherwise, I doubt I would've
known about them at all.  I still wonder if perhaps more were made,
but slipped under the radar for me.  :(


--Arturo
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[Anne Wilson-5]

On Monday 26 October 2009 17:16:40 Arturo Silva wrote:

> ================================
> Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> ================================
>
> > When thinking about how to improve the KDE documentation situation, I
> > realized that I don't really know a lot about how people use our
> > documentation and what our user's requirements actually are.
> >
> > What about doing a survey and ask users about their current use of
> > documentation and their ideas how it could be improved?
> >
> > We could ask questions to find out:
> > - How do users get help?
> > - How frequently do users use the different tools and systems
> > (KHelpcenter, what's this help, online manuals, userbase, forums, google,
> > etc.) - Do users have Internet connections?
> > - Do users need printable manuals?
> > - Would users be willing to contribute to documentation?
> > - What kind of tools and formats do documentation contributors prefer?
> > - How much do users rely on translated manuals?
> > - What parts of the manuals are users using?
> > - What would users like to see in addition to what we already have?
> >
> > How do you like this idea?
>
> I like the idea as long as such a survey does get a good amount of
> exposure (e.g., not limtied to a forum requiring registration).  A few
> months back (long before I came here) I remember doing surveys which
> allowed me to "vote" for the best Oxygen icons for K3b and KDevelop --
> and despite the limited options and lack of comment fields, I actually
> thought it was a wonderful idea.  It was easy to use, brief and
> informative and relatively painless to participate in.  I'm not sure
> if the amount of responses with this was any better, but I wouldn't be
> surprised if the turnout was relatively impressive.
>
> However, I only really knew about them because they were advertised in
> the major Linux online news sites -- otherwise, I doubt I would've
> known about them at all.  I still wonder if perhaps more were made,
> but slipped under the radar for me.  :(
>

We could mount a campaign to publicise it on Mailing Lists as well.  

http://userbase.kde.org/Mailing_Lists has a list of user-centric ones.  I
could mail those.  What about distro-centric ones?  Does anyone know if such a
list exists anywhere?  If not we'd be trusting to luck that someone who reads
here could contact the various lists.

Anne
--
New to KDE4? - get help from http://userbase.kde.org
Just found a cool new feature?  Add it to UserBase


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[Cornelius Schumacher]

On Monday 26 October 2009 13:08:58 Ingo Malchow wrote:
>
> Note we have a poll on the forums asking about khc, see
> http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=82794
> The number of votes is not yet impressive, but i wanted to just add
> that to this topic.

Yes, this already gives some insight. That's basically what I was thinking
about, but with a broader scope.

--
Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@...>
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[Cornelius Schumacher]

On Monday 26 October 2009 18:16:40 Arturo Silva wrote:
>
> I like the idea as long as such a survey does get a good amount of
> exposure (e.g., not limtied to a forum requiring registration).

Absolutely. It should be accessible anonymously and be advertised widely, e.g.
on the mailing lists, forum, dot, opendesktop.org, etc.

--
Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@...>
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