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Subject:RE:STC letter to the editor From:"Damien Braniff" <DBraniff -at- amphion -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 4 Nov 2002 08:24:18 -0000
There IS merit in 'artistic' presentation. Documentation should be, first and foremost, useful. To be useful it must be accurate and the information easy to find (I don't class this as 'artistic', simply good, basic, TW practice). Where I see the 'artistic' bit coming in (not always needed!) is in getting the user to actually READ the documentation. Good design, layout etc should be a part of this but the 'artistic' style is also important (Dummies etc). In some cases good navigation etc is sufficient to encourage the reader, in other cases you need to tempt them into the document. It all boils down to knowing the user (yet again):
* Are they engineers looking only for answers to particular questions? Take them to the information they need as quickly as possible, and make it easy to get there
* Are they non-techies? Then hold their hands and lead them to the information, taking as long as needed.
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