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Guided exploration and error recognition and
recovery are basic tenets of Minimalism. Minimalism
is an instructional theory (or set of ideas) that
Hackos and others attempt to apply to documentation.
In developing Minimalism, John Carroll observed that
new users, following traditional step-by-step system
instruction, often made errors without knowing that
they had made an error. Thus, the emphasis on error
recognition and recovery.
The item below probably describes the experiment that
Hackos was referring to:
Carroll (in Caroll, J.M. (1990). The Nurnberg Funnel.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) describes an example of a
guided exploration approach to learning how to use
a word processor. The training materials involved
a set of 25 cards to replace a 94 page manual. Each
card corresponded to a meaningful task, was
self-contained and included error recognition/recovery
information for that task. Furthermore, the information
provided on the cards was not complete, step-by-step
specifications but only the key ideas or hints about
what to do. In an experiment that compared the use
of the cards versus the manual, users learned the
task in about half the time with the cards, supporting
the effectiveness of the minimalist design.
<end example>
Many learning theorists, like Roger Schank, state
that learning only happens when a user does something
and gets an unexpected result. They stop, analyze and
learn what they should expect.
This all raises points about the role of documentation as
instruction, reference, procedure description or what?
Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)
-----Original Message-----
From: Lois Patterson [mailto:skycerulean -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 2:22 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: encouraging learning by experimentation?
I think one practical example that Hackos referenced
in respect to encouraging experimentation and error
recovery was IBM's documentation for DisplayWrite, an
early word processing package. Obviously
experimentation in that context is quite different
than experimentation when using mission-critical
applications.
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