RE: "Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years - Help!)

[nancy -dot- bush -at- insurity -dot- com]

While having space to write notes might be handy, the real reason for wide
margins is more likely readability. The average eye span is reportedly about
three inches, and readability declines as line length increases. There's
tons of documentation online about readability, reading comprehension, and
the relationship between white space and cognition.
Nan B.

-----Original Message-----
From: Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN
[mailto:christine -dot- a -dot- anameier -at- usps -dot- gov]
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 2:25 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: "Too Good" (was: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers
in Years - Help!)



Somebody wrote:
> One of the design principles we followed was
> to have LOTS of white space in the manuals, so the
> students would have areas where they could take notes.
> The theory is, their making notes next to the key phrases
> in the manual gives them a tighter memory association.
 
Does anyone have any evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) to support or
refute this theory?

I've heard it before, but I'm skeptical. My gut feeling is that the
trainees will either (a) not write anything, and then go back later to
the fragmented thoughts in the manuals and wonder what it all meant; or
(b) write disjointed notes, and then go back later and wonder what it
all meant. 

I'd rather give them something so detailed and complete that they can
use it as reference material later on. If I went back to my notes from
Biology 101, I'm sure they would be gibberish to me now--I scribbled
them hastily in my illegible scrawl while trying to listen to lectures;
but if I went back and reread the textbook, I'd find usable information.


Christine

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