Manual Creation, Quality Improvement, CMS Implementation Case Studies

 

 Request from GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY

GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY provides services such as measurement, simulation, and visualization in the fields of civil engineering design, ground disaster prevention, and underground environment based on geology, geotechnical engineering, and computer technology.

 

We received an inquiry from the Human Science website stating, "We would like to outsource the creation of manuals for our upcoming software for sale."

 

"Geo-Graphia^®", a software for creating and managing 3D data of terrain and strata, has already been test-sold, but we have received feedback from users.

 

"I don't know where the desired operation is written."

"I cannot understand the terms being explained."

 

There were voices saying that manuals like this were difficult to understand.

In addition,

 

- Manual creation is done in parallel with development by one developer, so there is not enough time to update. Such circumstances as this.

 

- Adding new features and creating manuals, there may be cases where the functions are not fully covered in the manual.
- There is a possibility that what is written in the manual may not actually function.

 

You had challenges such as

 

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About GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY

Established in 1997

Representative Director Hiroyuki Yokoyama

Number of Employees: 43 (as of June 2015)

Business geology and rock formation investigation, analysis, simulation, software sales

Headquarters Address: 〒242-0017 Oyama East 3-1-6, Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture

http://www.geolab.jp/

 

Human Science Solutions

We proposed two concepts as pillars for manual improvement in response to the challenges faced by GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY.

 

(1)Improved searchability and organization of information

 

1. Table of Contents that leads to the desired content

Review the segmented structure and table of contents of the entire manual, and design it so that users can easily find the information they need.

 

2. Organizing and tidying up topic content

Organize information in an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand manner, so that the purpose and positioning of the manual can be understood at a glance.

(2)Improved Maintainability

Proposing a reorganization of the entire manual and sharing of content in conjunction with a review of the segmented structure.

To improve maintainability, we propose using a CMS (Content Management System) as the production environment.

We have chosen "Author-it" for its ease of use and similar functionality to Word, as we have previously used Word for creating manuals.

For more detailed information related to this case study, please see below.

Creation of Manuals and User Guides

Manual Creation In-house Support Service

Manual Evaluation, Analysis, and Improvement Proposal Service

DITA・CMS

Customer Testimonials

Until we commissioned Human Science Co., Ltd. to create our manuals, they were created internally. However, with limited time and resources, we were unable to achieve user satisfaction with the quality of our manuals.
Human Science Co., Ltd.'s proposal accurately identified problem areas based on current analysis and provided a concrete plan for improvement, which was the deciding factor in our decision to hire them.
Even during the actual revision process, they steadily progressed with the revisions and frequent information sharing through regular meetings gave us peace of mind in entrusting the work to them until completion.
We are extremely satisfied with the new manuals, which have been designed with usability and readability in mind.

From Human Science representative

"We often receive requests from various companies saying, "We are creating manuals internally, but we are unable to keep up and the quality is not improving, so we would like you to improve it."

In the case of GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY, it was reported that users were having trouble finding necessary information from the manual and there were many inquiries. Therefore, we proposed improvement methods with a focus on the usability of the manual.

We are extremely pleased to have been able to achieve a high level of professionalism in our products, which also required a large volume of manuals. The project lasted for a long period of time, and we greatly appreciate the cooperation of our customers in providing information and confirming manuscripts. We are very happy to hear that we were able to achieve a level of quality that meets your satisfaction.

We hope to continue to be of service to you in manual revisions, maintenance and operation support, and more.

Related Services

Creation of Manuals and User Guides

Manual Creation In-house Support Service

Manual Evaluation, Analysis, and Improvement Proposal Service

DITA・CMS