Re: Article: The Secret Of Impressive Writing? Keep It Plain AndSimple

[Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hmmm, is form and style irrelevant to the substance of
what we write?

First, a story. My wife and I have been looking for a
new house for the last few months, and it's
interesting how much "curb appeal" determines whether
we'll actually enter a house to look at it more
closely. If it's ugly, sometimes we'll simply keep
driving.

Tech writing tie-in....

I wonder how many people don't open a manual or
proceed past the first screen in online help because
they're ugly.

If that number is 10 percent, well, no big deal. Their
loss, right?

If that number is 60-70 percent, we have a problem.
Then we need to better understand the role of design
and aesthetics in enticing users to read our content.

Steven Brown


--- Peter Sturgeon <prsturgeon -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

> Depends. How old is the the expression "triumph of
> form over substance"?


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