Table of Contents

Documentation Audience and Content

This document is an attempt to lay out how Protohaven's different audiences interact with various documents and content currently, right now:

  1. Audience analysis: who they are, what docs/content they need to access, and why.
  2. Document/content analysis: what they are, and which needs they must satisfy.

Begin with Audiences

To come up with good solutions, we first need to figure out who our audiences are, and the kinds of information they need.

Note: this document describes the situation as it stands now. Understanding where we are will help figure out what's working, what's not, and where we want to go.

Here's a draft list of our audiences:

For the best outcomes, it is critical that we keep all these groups in mind, and prepare documentation to help them succeed. As an example: a non-member in a class learning about, say, the table saw is going to have very different information needs than a seasoned shop member with years of experience. Our documentation should reflect this diversity of information need.

This will often mean that two different pieces of documentation are required. As an example, neither a clearance checklist nor the instructor's notes for a class will likely be very useful to a novice learning.

Non-Member Public

Folks who are part of the non-member public are likely going to be interacting first with the website, then possibly signing up for a tour or a class. If they decide to investigate membership, they'll start looking at the member guide and other policy materials.

Current Interactions:

General Members

General members will be interacting with the Protohaven website for external-facing information, and the wiki, membership dashboard, and Discord for member-facing information. They will be taking classes or using private instruction to get clearances. They will likely want to refer to the member guide, and may want to refer back to the policy agreements. They will be using the shop independently and interacting with tools and machines.

Current Interactions:

Volunteer Techs

Volunteer techs help run the show. They need to be up to speed on what's going on with members, but also need support for their workflow as they care for the shop. They also support members when there is a problem with a machine.

Current Interactions:

Instructors

Instructors need to keep up with the goings-on in the shop, as well as maintain documentation for their classes (student handouts, lesson plans). (who maintains clearance checklist content?) They also need to schedule their upcoming classes, write and test new classes, and fill out and submit class documentation for attendance and cleared status.

Current Interactions:

Tech Leads

(I'm not entirely sure what the scope here; this is my best guess. )

Tech Leads help stage manage the show. They need to be up to speed on what's going on with the shop, as well as with techs and the status of tech shifts. They periodically need to interview prospective new techs, onboard new techs, and offboard departing techs. They also serve as the interface between techs and the board, and help resolve conflicts between techs and between techs and members.

Current Interactions:

Event Planners

Event planners devleop and implement plans for events. They interact with the community to advertise and solicit help for the event. They run the show on the day of the event, and may collect notes on how it went for future planning.

Current Interactions:

Staff / Board Members

(I'm not entirely sure what the scope here; this is my best guess. )

Board and staff members have the highest-level view of the organization. They make strategic plans, write grants, look for new resources and collaboration opportunities, and determine policies. They manage the financial, legal, and operational aspects of the organiztion.

Current Interactions:

Current Documentation Content

Grid

Public Member Tech Instructor Tech Lead Event Planner Staff/Board
External Web R R R R R R RW
Member Web R RW RW RW RW RW
Internal Web R RW RW RW RW RW
Doc Repo RW RW RW RW
Instructor Web RW
Instructor Repo RW
Clearance Check R
Social Web R R? R? R? R? RW R?
Chat RW RW RW RW RW RW
Student Handouts R R R RW R
Code of Conduct R R R R R R RW
Member Guide R R R R R RW
Policies R R R R R R RW

R = Reader

W = Writer

Notes

Techs deal with the Document Repository for sales information, events they're helping with, per-tool documents (setup/shutdown, QR codes).

Instructors Deal with the Internal-Facing Web for purchasing.

It's unclear who authors the Clearance Checklists.