To many guides and devices for review? ifixit staff tiring? :-)

Hey Mr. Turkey,

I'll have the tech writers pick apart your guides in the next couple of weeks. Right now we're tremendously busy, but I'm sure there will be a lull in our to-do list in the near future.

How would you like us to respond? Is it cool if we set up an answer to this thread for each guide, and explain what could be done better? That way other folks can benefit from the same information.

First and foremost, all of the guides you contributed are awesome tutorials. If every user on our site wrote as many guides as you, I wouldn't have a job. Some of the tips that I have for you will apply to all of your guides, so I'll dedicate this answer to those.

Even though you're thinking about the particular component that you're writing the guide for, you can't forget about everything that stood in your way before you got there. If you have to take out the battery, outer case, and LCD before you remove the lens assembly in a camera, then you have four guides there, rather than one. Make the first guide and then start the next one where the first left off. Use the prerequisite guide feature on the Details page to import the beginning steps, rather than rewriting them. This is the same method we use and it makes writing 40 or 50 step guides much less tedious.

I touched on photos briefly when I talked about device pages, but I'll go into more detail here for guides. When it comes to light, you don't just want bright light, you want even lighting. You'll get that type of light from having multiple lamps with daylight bulbs in them (5000-5500 Kelvin). Harsh direct light from an on-camera flash results in a lot of glare and bright reflections. A light colored background such as white photo paper will help too, since white surfaces will bounce more light.

Just as important as the technical execution of the photos are the content and composition. It's very easy to tell someone how to do something, but it takes more work to show them how to do it. Your photos portray the actions being described very well for the most part. There are a few occasions, however, when your guides would benefit from having a few more pictures. Pulling and prying actions, for example, are much more easily conveyed to the reader with multiple pictures, rather than a single image.

It can be difficult to show two-handed actions if you're using one hand to hold the camera. If you're not already, you should set the camera on a tripod and use a 2 or 5 second shutter delay. Not only does this give you an extra hand to use, it allows you to take pictures in lower light conditions while avoiding blurry images caused by camera shake.

In order to cover the specifics of each individual guide, I'll dedicate an answer here to each one. Keep up the good work!

While the length of this answer may seem intimidating, I want to start off by saying that you wrote an excellent guide, Mr. Turkey. This critique is not just for you to reference to go back and improve your guide, but for any user on iFixit to refer to and make all of their contributions to our site even better. With that being said, here is my review of your Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S650 Lens Assembly repair guide. Enjoy :]

Any guide where you are disassembling the device to remove a specific component should be an "Installation" guide, not a "Repairing" one. Repairing the lens assembly would entail separating all of the optical elements and refurbishing the assembly to working condition.

Just like for a device page, the summary of a guide should be an extremely brief overview of the procedure being performed. In this case, something like "Replacing a seized lens assembly in the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S650." would be sufficient. Again, the majority of information should be in the introduction, not the summary.

Extra information about a tool that you've added in parentheses should be included in the notes, rather than in the tool's title. You can add or edit a note by going to the Details page for a guide and clicking the pencil icon next to the tool you want to edit. For parts, you want to make sure you are as specific as possible so that if someone comes back later with a link to a parts seller they can add it to the description. A general lens assembly part would be fine if every manufacturer used the same hardware, but that is unfortunately not the case.

Step 1:

• You appear to be taking the batteries and SD card out here, rather than replacing them. The text should reflect that and should be accompanied by a few more pictures. While most people probably know how to open the battery door on their camera, it never hurt anyone to be thorough.
• Whenever you remove screws you should note their length in mm. This will make it easier for readers to keep track of each screw. Additionally, if there is more than one screw type in the device, you should include the screw head type when you remove it (Phillips #0, T5 Torx, etc.).

Step 2:

• Be sure to describe how to perform a specific action, rather than just stating to do it. This is especially important when removing case components. Does that middle cover need to be simply lifted off, pryed off, or hit with a hammer?
• If screws are the same type and size, you may mark them up in the same color, but they should share the same bullet in the step text.

Step 3:

• Any screw that is in any way different from another should have its own color of markup that corresponds to its own bullet. This will remove the need for an extra caution bullet.
• Markup colors should progress through each step starting with red and working down the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, cyan, blue, violet).

Step 4:

• Use concise, descriptive text when writing guides. A clearer way to word the first bullet would have been "Insert a plastic opening tool between the front and rear cases along the bottom of the camera near the battery cover."
• Rather than colored red, the third bullet here should be a caution bullet, since pulling too hard could damage the ribbon cable. This is an instance where the bullet color doesn't have to match the markup.

Step 5:

• Everything looks pretty good here. Just be sure to do a good ol' fashioned grammar check.

Step 6:

• It's best to describe disconnecting this type of ribbon cable connector by telling the reader to "flip up the tab on the ZIF connector" with a fingernail or plastic opening tool before pulling the ribbon cable out.
• Though a useful piece of information, the third bullet isn't entirely necessary for the repair you're performing.

Step 7:

• This step will be perfect if you go back through and fix the bullets and markup using the tips I mentioned for steps 1 and 2.
• On a less important note, we usually reserve the term "logic board" for Apple devices and refer to the main boards in other devices as motherboards.

Step 8:

• We try to use the active voice when writing directions. For example, rather than saying that a component can be removed, we tell the reader to remove it.

Step 9:

• I believe you mean to say "reassembly" here, rather than assembly. It's a small change, but it adds a lot of clarity to the step.
• Change the second bullet to a note, rather than a blue bullet. This is another instance where the marker and the bullet don't have to match.

Step 10:

• The first bullet would be more helpful if it was accompanied by a picture showing the action being described.
• Though it's nice to point out the RTC battery, it doesn't need to be included in this guide.

Step 11:

• You should clarify the third bullet by stating that the replacement lens assembly did not come with a new CCD sensor.

Step 12:

• You don't really need this photo for the guide. After completing step 11, the reader will see the message to follow the directions in reverse order, and then they'll be set.

Again, thank you very much for your awesome contributions to iFixit. I'll be going over the other guides you wrote in less detail; this review should give you a few pointers that you can apply to them. Here's a cookie with sunglasses on for your hard work.