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 | | How to Leap Over Tall Stacks of Instruction Manuals at a Single Click by Mark Lapin From ‘n00b’ to pro—Demystifying Digital.com gives each visitor an individual welcome Article rating: 8.53 |
If you’re living in the digital age but lack the digital gene that grants instant, intuitive understanding of all things high-tech, you can now leap over tall stacks of instruction manuals at a single click. That click will take you to Demystifying Digital.com, a new website dedicated to taking the ‘intimidation factor’ out of choosing, using, integrating and enjoying the legions of electronic devices destined to enter your life.
Down-to-earth, one-to-one communication
Demystifying Digital.com stands out from the glut of sites that extol and explain digital products because of its determination to avoid both hype and geekiness in favor of a down-to-earth, personalized approach. ‘A lot of web review sites are intimidating because the writer is coming from a different place than the reader. You have to know something going in or you won't get much out,’ says Dan Havlik, editor of Demystifying Digital.com. ‘We break it down so that if you really know very little about a computer, a cell phone, a smart phone or a laptop, our site will not only tell you how this product works, but also explain how to get real results from it in your daily life. We’re not about bells and whistles but about how they matter to you.’
 The most distinctive feature of Demystifying Digital.com is the team of virtual guides who welcome visitors to the site in one-on-one, individualized style. There are five guides who appear on the site as cartoon icons representing different genders, generations, lifestyles and levels of comfort with technology.
Virtual guides
‘We want to talk to people in a way they can relate to,’ says site founder Jerry Grossman, ‘so we hired writers who are going through the same kind of real-life situations as our visitors. We’ve got a run-around mom, a tech-confused dad, a digital fast-tracker, a digital grandparent and a born-digital writer. The run-around-mom is actually a mother of two who’s freelancing on the side. She writes about things like having a kid in the nursery school play, taking photos of the performance, and using them to create a digital slide show that the grandparents can enjoy on their large-screen TV.’ Each guide blogs a couple of times a week and contributes two or three articles a month about their adventures in the digital maze.
 Site editor Dan Havlik writes the Biz Fast Tracker columns and is eminently entitled to that moniker. A self-confessed gadget geek who reads instruction manuals while riding on the subway, Dan has been a high-tech journalist for a dozen years and is now the technology editor for Photo District News as well as Demystifying Digital. Despite all that geeky background, Dan cites a personal experience as the major motivator of his work on Demystifying Digital.
Personal experience
‘It was my dad,’ he says. ‘He’s a very smart guy, a doctor who worked for the National Institutes of Health, but when it comes to technology, he really struggles. He was trying to set up an air conditioner in my apartment in New York and spent about four hours pouring over the manual. Our site is designed to explain technology to people like him, to cut out all the unnecessary steps and jargon, and just show people how to use this stuff in their lives.’
Jerry Grossman, the founder of Demystifying Digital, appears on the site as the Tech-Confused Dad, which seems a bit of a stretch considering his expertise in high-tech marketing. Grossman developed all of Nikon’s web properties during his 12 years as VP of marketing for that company. He is now the publisher of both Photo Industry Reporter, and the print version of Demystifying Digital, which appears four times a year in USA Today. ‘But I’m not a tech guy,’ Grossman insists, ‘I’m a marketing guy who has spent a lot of time around technology but would never think of opening a computer to make an upgrade.’ One of Grossman’s first columns was about the sense of accomplishment that came from popping open his daughter’s iBook to successfully slip in some extra memory chips.
In addition to following a virtual guide, visitors to the site can also explore a range of other features designed for quick, painless comprehension. The Interactive Glossary appears on all pages of the site and explains key concepts in words and images. The section called What’s New and Easy recommends high-quality digital gadgets that give excellent results with an absolute minimum of hassle. It’s refreshed at least three times monthly.
Not rocket science
A visit to the Product Primer section can make you look like a savvy shopper who knows all the right questions to ask at the electronics store. Checking this section before you buy your next camera or laptop, can help you concentrate on the essential features you need rather than the bells and whistles the salesperson wants to hype. The DIY (Do It Yourself) tutorials offer links to some of the best tutorials on the web, dealing with issues such as how to set up your high-definition TV, or do email on your smart phone, or take advantage of the diversity of scene modes pre-programmed into your digital camera. ‘The tutorials are not about deep probing,’ says site editor Havlik. ‘We emphasize the basics, the relatively simple things you can do to get a lot more satisfaction from your use of digital products.’
Synergy made simple
The Digital Home section focuses on an aspect of the digital age that is particularly perplexing and often ignored, -- integrating stand-alone digital products to achieve higher levels of enjoyment. ‘People don’t just want to buy a digital camera or a printer. They want them to work together seamlessly,’ says Jerry Grossman. ‘They want the camera to communicate with their large-screen TV, their home theater, their wireless network. All this convergence makes digital seem even more intimidating. The purpose of Demystifying Digital.com is to make it easy and fun. To show you what other people are doing, to get you excited, to encourage you to take a little risk in order and make your life a little more fulfilling.’ ^ Back to top
| Comments About This Article |
 | I am excite, I am hoping to learn more about digital photography without all the "bells & whistles like the article stated. Thos manuals are enough to make you want to forget about learning photography. Posted by: nanahuff Aug 29, 2007 @ 9:30 PM EST |
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