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September 10th, 2008 | Posted in Technical Writing 7 Comments »
The Help Authoring Tools survey in my blog’s sidebar has been the source of no little controversy, and I’ve left it up there for a reason. I’ve been telling myself that when 1,000 people participate, I’ll officially analyze the results. (So far 784 have voted.)
However, Char James-Tanny announced a new help authoring tools survey, this one sponsored by the HAT-Matrix (not to be confused with the Matrix movie). The new HAT-Matrix’s survey is a little more official looking. Perhaps the creators have taken into account all of the slippery variables that lead to survey bias.
So I ask you to please take a minute and fill out the help authoring tools survey published by the HAT-Matrix. I’m really curious to know if the survey in my blog’s sidebar is bogus or if it carries any weight. The HAT-Matrix’s help authoring tools survey will be available until the end of September 2008.
Tags: Char James-Tanney, HAT-Matrix, help authoring tools, survey
Ok, here’s my feedback on the survey:
You don’t list DocBook- or DITA-based systems or any XML editors under the “What applications have you used?” question.
The question “What types of content do you creats?” doesn’t list user assistance/help in a survey about HATs!?!
You do list DITA and DocBook under “What types of output do you publish?” DocBook and DITA are sometimes output formats if used for information interchange (i.e. supplying the source to a partner to produce rebranded content), but more typically they are source formats from which you produce pdf or various flavors of html.
You don’t list Eclipse doc plugins as an output format. This is an increasingly common format for use in eclipse-based applications and standalone infocenters.
David, this isn’t my survey, but I can see how that would be misleading from my post’s title. The survey I’m referring to in my title is the informal one-question survey in my sidebar. The official HAT survey created by the HAT-Matrix is the one I linked to in the post. I believe Char James-Tanney created it.
I said “prove my survey wrong” because my results showed such a preponderance of Flare usage that it seemed an irregularity. I want people to take the official HAT survey published by Char et al to see if my informal survey was skewed.
Tom, I didn’t realize your survey was about Help authoring. I thought you meant authoring in general. That’s why I picked Word.
Tom,
Sorry about that. I misread your blog post and have flashblock installed, so I didn’t see your survey in the sidebar.
David
I’d say you did good and the HATT forums just can’t take the heat… But I guess we’ll all find out sooner rather than later.
Charless last blog post..Wordle: Just check it out
@ Charles, To be honest, I’m pretty sure Madcap encouraged their users to participate in my survey. But I’m glad they did, because it drove tons of people to my site. In the long run, with about 800 responses, any imbalances will be smoothed out.
We’ll see how it compares with the official HAT survey sponsored by the HAT Matrix. It’s hard to get a representative sample of people to participate in a survey. The HAT survey is advertised on the HAT listserv, where perhaps the sample of people varies radically from those not on that listserv.
Hey Tom,
In a nutshell if MadCap was able to shuffle over their users… wouldn’t MORE users of Adobe products be available?
This is more interesting than before… I could conclude that Flare users are either more involved in their community, or Adobe users just don’t visit their community… Or that the HATT may well be the last refuge of RH users who are still passionate…
Theory, all of it, of course!!