Introduction
The year has been challenging for all of us, but I refuse to let it impede my growth. I want to indulge myself with like-minded people and be a part of something bigger than myself.
Although I may not belong in the generation of the Macintosh, I do belong in the gaming community. I share the sentiment behind the creation of such a software, and I would like to make it better.
ScummVM - Launching a new documentation portal
ScummVM possesses a treasure trove of information that awaits unlocking. The current state of documentation is comparable to a jigsaw puzzle - broken pieces and a fragmented picture. ScummVM’s audience comprises of amateur users as well as computer geeks, and hence simplicity should be the primary goal for this project. Documentation should be concise, incisive and to the point. Information is plentiful but lacks a touch of professionalism. The approach will focus heavily on collecting, reconstructing, and organizing.
The proposal first discusses the shortcomings of the documentation and how to tackle it. Further, it presents sitemaps, layouts, and write-up snippets to provide a sneak-peek to the new documentation portal. The user readability has been given paramount importance by using a friendly, yet informative attitude.
Analysis
ScummVM’s documentation has a variety of issues. Discussed as below:
- Readability
- Information is scattered and dissipated - Information is dispersed among multiple sources of documentation. This makes the reader go through a lot of hassle trying to find instructions.
- Navigation
- Poor documentation structure. Information is abundant but lacks a concrete catalog. What good is the gold that cannot be mined?
- Redundancy
- Multiple instances exist for the same documentation. This leads to confusion among users, and they might feel lost trying to figure what’s best for them.
- Highlighting
- ScummVM documentation has a plethora of amazing functionalities that never make it to the reader’s eyes. ScummVM’s features require better documenting and showcasing.
- Consolidating of ReadME
- The content on the ReadME is disoriented. Topics on the ReadME needs to be categorized roughly into documentation(Usage, Guides etc.) and notes(Supported Games, Bugs etc).