RE: Single Spacing: Brain vs body

["David Chinell" <dchinell -at- msn -dot- com>]

Lynne:

I have too much time on my hands. I'm not helping anyone do
anything. I'm just babbling. I should get back to work. I
will, too. But first...

I agree with what you say, but add that once one has learned
to read, well-designed and executed material renders the
reading process relatively independent of the conscious mind
and central nervous system. That means the reader can use
their conscious mind to absorb the material and use their
parasympathetic nervous system to handle the mechanics of
scanning, page turning, etc.

I don't want my reader's CNS wrestling with finding the next
line because the line length is too great. I don't want one
neuron in that brain to be occupied with anything other than
getting the information and knowledge and facts needed.

Similarly, I don't want them to wonder if the "Whammo
Technical Reference" and the "WH24 Technical Reference
Manual" and the "Whammo Documentation" refer to the same
thing. I KNOW my readers have a fabulous ability to deduce
their equivalence by observation, but I don't want them to
have to do it, so I consider it my duty to determine the
correct title of the manual and use it consistently.

Making the mechanics of reading transparent -- leaving the
reading process to the body rather than involving the
mind -- requires that the designer or writer obey the
conventions that define how the reader learned to read, as
you correctly stated.

My reference to "silly trickery" was misleading, I fear. I'm
thinking of the overuse of icons in the margin, or of having
every other paragraph on a page formatted as a note or
caution. Too often it just becomes meaningless noise.

I'm still not convinced that bolding interface element names
helps anybody, because I haven't read any studies that show
people's eye's actually track that way, that their eyes
actually skip from bolded word to bolded word, while their
minds formulate a sentence like: Changing a file type,
changing a file type, hmmm... So! File then Export then pick
from a list of types.

I don't know. These are the kinds of things I think
distinguish me from other people who can write, but whose
career is not writing or editing. These are the things --
other than my luscious salary -- that make me call myself a
professional writer.

You said: In fact, most people won't recognize when
something is designed well... but they'll sure as heck
notice when something is designed BADLY.

And that, in my inept way, is what I'm trying to say. That
good design renders the unimportant mechanics of reading
invisible. By invisible, I mean something the reader is not
conscious of. From that it's not too far removed to say that
the reader's mind isn't involved in the process of reading.

Or maybe it is.

Bear



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content 
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo 

>From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed
documentation with ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 7 Professional, a new yearly
subscription service offering free updates and upgrades, support, and more.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.