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Re: Sloppy writing, sloppy thinking

Subject: Re: Sloppy writing, sloppy thinking
From: Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 08:09:06 +0200


I certainly share Andrew's dislike for those menu-oriented
approaches to user-guide oraganization: [...]

Usually, the better way is task-oriented: "To achieve this result,
follow this procedure." And to do that properly requires an
undertanding of what your users want to achieve.

IMHO, often the best way is to have both, because they answer different types of questions a user can have: A task-oriented section is useful for finding out how to achieve a particular goal, while a separate reference section organized along the lines of the user interface is useful for finding out what a particular element does. In particular, a reference section makes it easier to explain numerous options that some elemnts may include without having to interrupt the explanation of a task.

Regards
Jan Henning

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E-Mail: henning -at- r-l -dot- de, Web: www.r-l.de
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