An empathetic approach to user assistance (in all its guises) is a win win situation.

Such an empathetic approach has many benefits, and it’s important for technical communicators to get a better understanding of their users’ requirements and structure and deliver content to match such requirements.

Of course a conversational tone isn’t always appropriate, and a more colloquial, idiom-based content set can create problems for localisation and translation ; however, combined with the more accepted DITA standards (concepts, tasks, and reference) it can be used to great effect. Concepts (overviews) lend themselves well to a more conversational approach, as do FAQs, and TIPs. Whereas, step-driven, tasks are better suited to a more traditional, minimalist approach.