Hi,

When speaking with Skydemon users and asking about it's limitation, it's becoming obvious that the answer is no longer about the product itself. A recurring complaint is now about documentation.

For a new user the learning curve is high, but even for a long time user it's sometimes hard to find about the new functions. I've summarized the main 'SD 2014 additions' to a panel of users last week, and most of them were not knowing at all about most of them, even the historical users.

The documentation, in his actual format, is not as helpful as it should be:
- Some parts are confusing, due to the formatting (lack of clear marking/separators/titles). 
- Not being able to (easily) download the documentation leads to multiple unofficial versions of the documentation, all generated by different people, and based of different versions, since this is the only way to search, navigate or read the documentation in a modern way (with search, annotations, read position saving, ...). 
- There's no exhaustive description for menus and trying to figure how an entry acts could be the start of a very long journey. On the other side, finding the menu for a documented capability is as difficult.
- A clear changelog (with a link to a specific part of the manual or an explanation of any new capability) is really missing.

Comparing with other tools on the market, Skydemon is way ahead when speaking about capabilities. But the documentation is way behind... 

I know I've initiated one of the most annoying topic a development team can think about (sorry about that), but I'm absolutely convicted that this is now one of the main area of improvement for Skydemon and definitely a way to give this wonderfull product the love it deserves

M

Which other products are you referring to when you refer to our documentation as way behind? I want to check out their documentation.

We've actually spent the last few weeks completely rewriting and reformatting the documentation so that we can publish one simple, searchable PDF on this website. I asked about progress on this earlier today and we are hoping to publish the first version by the end of the week. It will probably resolve most if not all of your concerns. We may even integrate it into our various platform products.

Having said that, the biggest problem with our documentation is, and has always been, that people do not read it. Changing the format may help a little with that, but it won't solve the problem.

Also, can you elaborate on in what way you deem our version history page to be lacking? I assume this is what you mean when you refer to a changelog.
http://www.skydemon.aero/plan/versionhistory.aspx

Sure.
https://www.foreflight.com/ipad/guide/pdf
http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/190-01501-00_0M_Web.pdf
http://www.xample.ch/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/User_Manual_iOS_5_5_1.pdf

One more time, it's not about the content. It's more about the format.
One single PDF, even if longer, offers more flexibility and capabilities than multiple web pages.
A well structured content is always easier to understand and remember.


You're really good at killing people complaints. I love that
That's really great, and I'm sure I'm won't be the only one to applause.


Of course, but the actual version is hard to read and finding one answer is not that easy, even when the user is motivated.
I've read every single word but sometimes connecting the dots is not easy with a multi page not-that-formatted content.

What's more, the actual documentation does not cover everything.
Sometimes, the only way to understand what a menu/parameter really means is to change it and hope you'll notice the difference. I tried every menu and parameter. It took me ages



It's not accessible from the documentation. The changelog content is good, but finding it is painfull. When you're a existing user, the pages it is accessible from (product description) are perhaps the last you're thinking of. It's not visible on the help or download (Get Started) pages. In my opinion, the changelog should be part of the manual.

It also does not link TO the documentation.
- "A route can now be split into multiple sectors". How?
- "Mountain Terrain mode can now be switched on when flying to highlight terrain near your level". How?
I know the answers to those questions. It just took me time to find them.

I can confirm that the new SkyDemon documentation is much like those other manuals you pasted links to.

Looking at the help pages,nav,live pilot log, it says I can press the edit button, where is that?
Also, TIP, touch to reveal more info doesnt seem to work.
Nexus 7 2013, latest SD.....or do these features not work on android?
Thanks
Pete

It would probably be a good idea to await the new documentation, in which several out-of-date pieces have been removed entirely and the rest redone to best reflect the current devices on which people are using SkyDemon.

Oh dear. Publicly  blaming your customers.  Always a surefire way to win their hearts and minds.....or more over, their wallets.....not.
lol.

I don't want to get inbetween you and Tim but it is nonetheless true that only the minority of customers reads the manual. A well designed application should not rely on users having read the manual anyway. After all, the computer needs to adapt to the user and not the other way around. And SD is pretty good in this respect.

I don't think that stating a well known fact, i.e., that most customers don't refer to printed documentation for problem resolution, constitutes "blaming" of customers. Not if you consider the kind and level of support offered on this very forum. I haven't seen a RTFM kind of response from any of the SD team members posting here.

-- Chris.

Chris

I agree wholeheartedly. I have a friend who never reads 'the manual', and when he has a problem, he will usually contact me, knowing that I will have read it from cover to cover! However, in the case of SD, I find the product so intuitive to use, that I have only, rarely, had to refer to the documentation. Nevertheless, this does not obviate the need for well formatted, accurate, up to date and searchable documentation. Rather, it underscores the need, so that when information is needed, it can be found easily and speedily. SD documentation may have had its shortcomings in the past, primarily because product development has has been so rapid, but knowing the SD team, and how they respond so positively to users' needs and requests, I think the forthcoming new documentation is likely to exceed expectations, and hopefully, it will be in a format that allows the SD team to keep it up to date without undue hassle.

Mike
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