A very heartfelt "Thank You" for product documentation

ravvenkitsune

I recently purchased Classic Long Curly Hair dForce by Linday (https://www.daz3d.com/classic-long-curly-hair-with-dforce-for-genesis-8-females) and I honestly want to thank the vendor for providing such awesome product documentation. The product works well without having the RTFM, but it's nice knowing that it's there if I run into problems.

This is something that many Daz products lack, and I can't tell you how many times I've purchased things like complicated environments with lighting, or (this is usually the case) complex lighting packages, and had a really frustrating time trying to figure out how to make it work with zero documentation. These products aren't cheap, and obviously the creator has spent a lot of time designing the package...why not add documentation to make it much more user friendly?

Anyway, Linday, thank you. <3

caravelle

I fully agree! I don't own this product, but I always appreciate it if vendors include a good documentation. 

LeatherGryphon

Mclean is another one who has been noted for producing good documentation.

Heck, for some of these undocumented complex products I'd be happy with a couple of lines telling me what the cryptic icon names mean.   Mind reading was not my best subject in school.  The philosophy of some of these creators seems to be "Why is a document necessary?  It's intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.", but is being said by someone who has spent 10 weeks designing it, has been buried to the neck in it and sees the complete mental model fully formed.  A small ray of illumination for the rest of us shmoos* goes a long way.  Think of the documentation as a "Philosophy of Operation".  To future creaters;  write your documentation to fill that form and you might even learn something yourself.

*Shmoo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo

Granville

Thanks for tips on those two venders. I prefer to buy products with at least a little documentation. Figuring out some of the excellent plugins here is like deciphering hieroglypics. 

Matt_Castle

LeatherGryphon said:

Mind reading was not my best subject in school.

 Well, apparently you have to be an expert in it to be in tech support... or so the kind of people I deal with seem to think. "Why isn't my program working?" I don't know, you haven't told me anything about the way in which it's not working, what you did immediately before it stopped working, and you're not answering the questions I need you to answer for me to find out that kind of thing...

LeatherGryphon said:

The philosophy of some of these creators seems to be "Why is a document necessary?  It's intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.", but is being said by someone who has spent 10 weeks designing it, has been buried to the neck in it and sees the complete mental model fully formed.

This is a common problem in video games, and avoiding it is an important role of the playtesting teams - the developers have been working on it for years, so it's obvious to them that you press X to turn on your flashlight, but they forget to ever put that detail in the tutorial. (A particularly notorious example is from the plot of the original Gears of War, where apparently the entire development team knew that the explosive plot device was on a train, but that detail never got explained in the story, so none of the players understood why they were trying to get on said train until considerably through the level!)

ravvenkitsune

I can understand not having to include documentation with simple models, props, etc. - they are what they are. But things like lighting packages especially could really use some documentation. I know YOU know how it works and what all of your little arrow and number icons mean, you created it - but I'm sitting here trying different combinations, combining things in different order to see if it makes a difference, and NOTHING is looking like the promo images when I bought it. It just frustrates me. 

I will say that (as an ex ecommerce web developer) I know that end users always miss things that you would have assumed were obvious. I'm talking about elements that (to me) were surrounded with flashing neon lights and arrows pointing to them, which users were somehow blind to. Knowing human nature...I'd document something like this. :D

maclean

I always include a Help File for complex products, and it's even easier now that it can be in .pdf format AND placed in the same folder as the content where the user can see it. In the past, customers have PMd me asking for documentation which was already there, but in an .html, and usually hidden in a ReadMe folder (by DAZ, not me). However, I will point out that it can be a bit of a task at times. I think the Fashion Studio .pdf took me over a week to finiish, including renders and formatting, so it's really only something I tackle if absolutely necessary.

Also, do remember that many PAs aren't native English speakers, and it would be even more difficult for them to do.

One other option I use quite often is to include an 'Info Panel' in the content folder. It's simply a white plane with a .jpg texture. The texture is just text giving any details I think the user might need to know. It takes up almost no resources, and the customer can load it and read it, then delete it once they no longer need it.

barbult

I appreciate the documentation, too! And vendors that add a link to the documentation right in the product go especially high on the "buy from again" list. Linday and the dForce hair products fall into that category. V3Digitimes is another vendor that provides a lot of documentation. 

AllenArt

LeatherGryphon said:

Mclean is another one who has been noted for producing good documentation.

Heck, for some of these undocumented complex products I'd be happy with a couple of lines telling me what the cryptic icon names mean.   Mind reading was not my best subject in school.  The philosophy of some of these creators seems to be "Why is a document necessary?  It's intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.", but is being said by someone who has spent 10 weeks designing it, has been buried to the neck in it and sees the complete mental model fully formed.  A small ray of illumination for the rest of us shmoos* goes a long way.  Think of the documentation as a "Philosophy of Operation".  To future creaters;  write your documentation to fill that form and you might even learn something yourself.

*Shmoo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo

Oh, but that can mean something totally different. LOL

Anyway, I agree totally about the documentation. It's always appreciated. I wish Daz Studio had something so I could RTFM when I got hung up on something. Can never find what I'm looking for on the wiki ;).

Laurie

AllenArt

duplicate post...ignore please ;)