Creating Useful Documentation

Knowing the field

You can get a feeling for the type of information you will have to include in documentation by knowing the field to which the product you are writing for belongs. For instance, knowing a little bit about accounting will help you to write about an accounting program. Knowing a little bit about medical hardware will help you write about a fetal heart monitor.

Some common ways to know the field for which you are writing are:

Have a background in the field
Research
Interview practitioners

Having a background in the field for which you are writing is the best way to understand that field. This will give you an intuitive feeling for the kind of information a user will want. This will in turn give you an idea of what to include in documentation. You will also know what additional information (aside from what clicking buttons in a program does) a user will want to know to fully use a product. So, if you have a background in 3D graphics and you're writing about 3D graphics, you'll know about textures, the Cartesian plane, keyframes, tweening, and more. This knowledge then leaches into your work and contributes to producing documentation that becomes tailored to the user's needs.

If you don't have a background in the field you're writing about, you can always do research. I am currently working with software that is used to manage city and state governments. In the process of writing for this software, I've had to learn about government accounting standards (not my favorite subject) and police procedures regarding accident investigations (a lot more interesting). Where did I find all of this information. Through research on the web mostly. You would be surprised what useful information you can find there! There is also a wealth of books published on just about every subject. Sometimes, you will be able to have your company pay for books that you need in order to learn the field for which you are writing. Additionally, just about every career and hobby has a magazine devoted to it. You can use these magazines not only to get a feeling for the field, but also to learn how the users feel about the product for which you are writing.

Finally, you can also interview the people for whom the documentation is being produced. They can give you an understanding of the field you won't be able to find anywhere else. They can also point you in the right direction to find out more about the field.