this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner - annie's blog (anniemueller.com)
submitted 10 months ago by SmartmanApps@programming.dev to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
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[–] RunJun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There’s amazing and terrible manuals everywhere. One of the key things is defining target audience. From there you define experience and knowledge.

If a manual is intended to be for a broad audience interacting with something new, then you use the lowest level reading level that still makes your point. From there you work on flow because there’s a 1000 ways to skin a cat.

If LEGO manuals were only written step by step instructions, at a college reading level, then they miss a key demographic. Yet, people would still walk around like “That’s a perfectly cromulent instruction manual!” Technically they would be correct but it misses the point.

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 10 months ago

There’s amazing

IBM

and terrible manuals everywhere.

Microsoft