View Single Post
benny1967's Avatar
Posts: 3,790 | Thanked: 5,718 times | Joined on Mar 2006 @ Vienna, Austria
#8
What a great thread. Thank you for asking our opinion.

Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post
My questions are the following:
  1. How would you rate the current support offering for N900, in your own words? Please give your evaluation separately for a) the printed Get started guide, b) the in-device User guide (you can access it through File manager > Documents > User guides), and c) the User guide PDF on the Nokia Support site.
a) the printed Get started guide
I didn't find it first in the box.
My box (bought in Vienna, Austria) also contained both the English and the German version. I have to admit my first impression was that this has to be an error and the English version had been put in there instead of the real handbook that I expected. Which pretty much describes my problem with the quick start guide... see your next question.

It is a good quick start guide. Where to open the device, how to insert the SIM-card... basic usage... all very clear and helpful. There was not one single thing that I was uncertain about.

b) the in-device User guide

To be honest, although I've owned each Maemo device from the 770 to the N900, I never opened those files (if they were there in the early devices at all - I don't know).
I tried to read it now so I could answer your question, but I stopped after a few clicks. It's like an endless ocean of words. When I'm on a page, I don't know where I am, if it's the beginning or the end of a chapter... I cannot quickly scan through it if I want to find a certain table again ("What was the meaning of the yellow exclamation mark again? I've seen it somewhere here.")
I cannot imagine having to use this, ever. Not because of the content. Because of the way it's presented.

c) the User guide PDF on the Nokia Support site

Again, I didn't read it when I got the device. I never knew it was there! I had to search a few minutes on the nokia.at site until I found it, it's not easy to find.
I love it. Of all three, it's the one I should have had from the beginning. Example? I was curious about which LED-signals to expect. I had seen yellow, green and blue. Was there a red signal maybe? I asked here in the forum. Hey, it's all in this PDF!
It's these things that make a manual useful... Buttons in applications you just tap on and see what happens. But sometimes the options aren't as evident. And sometimes you just don't search for them because you couldn't imagine they exist at all.

Oh, yes, and in comparison to other Nokia manuals: It has screenshots/photos! At least some! As much as I like Nokia products, I hate their manuals that are usually full of text and only a few very abstract drawings. You own a shiny new toy and the manual shows a a blue rectangle instead. There's a pretty menu with icons and the manual shows its items as text. A lot of this you still find in the N900-PDF, but the section about the camera really shows a pretty screenshot in color! A good start.

Some input:
Sometimes the manual gets a bit carried away with Maemospeak. "Sharing" is a concept that works beautifully once you discovered it, but when people want to know how to send files via bluetooth, they'll probably quickly scan such a manual for words like "send via..." and skip a "sharing" section. Also, the word "Avatar" in the chapter about the contacts seemed a bit out of place. These could both be translation problems though. Maybe it's completely OK for a native English speaker in the English version.

Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post
  1. What’s your opinion on the current concept of providing end user documentation, that is, a short, printed get started guide in the sales box, and the longer guides available on the web and in-device? Do you expect Nokia to provide a longer User guide in the sales box, or is the Get started guide enough?
On an emotional level, as someone who just (could have) spent €600,- on this thing, I expected something that at least tells me 2 or 3 of the tricks it does and confirms that it was a good thing to buy it. "Look how easy it is to take a picture, geotag and tag it, then finally upload to Ovi! Oh, while you read this, why not register the account and we'll show you how to set up the chat later? And here, see, there's a demo video on the device to show off the media player. Try internet radio while you're there. And then there's the FM transmitter, you must try the FM transmitter!" See what I mean? Describing how to operate the kickstand is nice, too, but it's not quite the €600-experience I was looking for in the box. (And that was only me. I knew as a member of this community what the N900 could do. Still I wanted this re-assuring feeling of an official "Look what your toy can do"-brochure. Now imagine other customers who really don't know about sharing on Ovi and VoIP and geotagging and whatnot.)

Actually, I even expect more. I expect the full handbook as it is for download on the support site in printed form. I typically unpack, play with the device, then take the manual when I go to bed and read. Really. So that I know next day what a blinking blue light means and why I sometimes see 3G and sometimes 3.5G. No, online files are not a replacement. They're not fun. And, as stated above, about the PDF on the web I didn't even know.


Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post
  1. Maemo 5 doesn't have a help framework. What’s your opinion, should there be one for Maemo 6? What would an ideal help system be in your opinion?
I come from the S60 world. I got my current phone in 2007. And: I still use its built in, context-sensitive help every now and then. Sometimes you just don't know what applications expect in a certain field in the settings. Full XMPP-account including domain? Or username only? That's when you're glad to have context sensitive help, small snippets of information that cover this one settings dialogue only. Like in Maemo, when you set up a new GTalk account and click on "advanced": What's a "resource" again? Is this important? Do I have to set it? It would help a lot having information like "Chose different values here if you're using the same account from two devices." available in an online help system.

Originally Posted by HSuhonen View Post
  1. And finally, how do you see the role of the Maemo community in providing end-user support? Do you think the community could be more involved in the process of making the User guides (for example, as a content reviewer)? What would, in your opinion, be a good solution for the community to get involved?
Have translations checked. Nokia and translations don't go together well.
Other than that, I'm not sure. It would be cool if, say, somebody who recently got the device and remembers what wasn't clear to him in the beginning could check and tell you if this one topic is sufficiently explained in the manual - nice idea, but then it's too late. You should have your documentation ready before this user buys his device.
No, I really don't have a good idea here.