While they may be comfortable using Microsoft Office applications, checking their email, and surfing the Web, my class introduces them to new applications and resources such as digital photography, podcasting, digital video, and some web development among other things. For most of our students, the content in this class is new and goes beyond their usual use of a computer. Our students complete projects using a variety of software applications and online resources. The primary course we teach introduces pre-service teacher education students to using a computer in pedagogically sound ways in classrooms. We teach instructional technology in a university school of education. We started hearing from them, “I just can’t remember what you clicked on,” or “I wish you could have shown me that again.” Now we can show our students exactly where we clicked, over and over again. They would get confused on “where to click” or how we accessed a specific window. Still, many students would experience problems. We would write incredibly detailed descriptions and steps for them, even including call outs and references to the images. We would take a great deal of time to capture the different menu options and windows a student would see when using an application. The point is that I think the closer you can get to this sort of writing, the more likely it is that you'll get the kind of customers that you actually want to make software for.We’ve always struggled with printed handouts, or should we say our students have always struggled with printed handouts. I'm not saying sell yourself short, just that you should focus on the people that are actually likely to enjoy what you've made.įew product web sites get this right all the time, and it's not a matter of good or bad. By saying specifically what your app is, you don't waste time, energy, and bandwidth on customers that aren't really customers. In practice, this doesn't seem to work as well anymore - at least for the audience that Mac developers are typically targeting. That is, it was in your best interest to make vague claims about features in order to cast a wide net and get as many users as possible to latch onto the idea. Up until recently, conventional wisdom was that you should not use any language that limits what your product does. There's no commentary on what your impression is of this feature - that's left up to you to decide. It's a clear statement about how this feature works. This allows you to add mouse click effects (both visual and audible), an overlay showing your key strokes and even lets you zoom the mouse pointer up & down." ![]() ![]() Vara Software gets this right with ScreenFlow:ĭuring your screen capture ScreenFlow tracks where your mouse cursor is, when you click and when you press a key. Explain what your product does in practical, specific terms that actually make sense to the reader. A terse explanation can be just as vague as a long explanation. When you sit down to write about what your app does, start with just that - explain what it does.īut by this I don't necessarily mean just list features. Many developers believe in the "start with something simple" philosophy when writing code, but may not immediately realize it works just as well for writing copy. It's in your best interest to make specific statements about what your software does, and to not talk down to the reader. Many Mac developers understand that a high-quality visual design for their web site helps the visitor understand both the company and product, but language design is just as important as layout and screenshots.
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