Re: Article: The Secret Of Impressive Writing? Keep It PlainAndSimple

["Damien Braniff" <Damien -dot- Braniff -at- asg -dot- com>]

Steve Brown asked <is form and style irrelevant to the substance> and,
to me at least, the answer is a resounding NO.

As part of my MA several years ago I did a survey that looked at what
people wanted from a manual, what they liked/didn't like etc. One thing
I asked about was the 'look and feel' - was it important and why. As I
remember I offered 4 options:
1 Well presented, good content
2 Well presented, poor content
3 Badly presented, good content
4 Badly presented, poor content

The results showed that:
If the manual looked 'professional' it was more likely to be read. If
they took trouble with the manual they probably did the same with the
product. If they found what they wanted then they tended to continue to
reference it as needed. If the content was poor then out it went!

The reverse was also true - couldn't be bothered with the manual so what
does that say about the product? It was often seldom/never referred to -
may never even have found out (3) that the info they needed was there.

I don't have the figures to hand but they were high - 60% plus as I
recall.

For a 'good' manual this implied that, at least initially, the look and
feel was MORE important than the content as it encouraged people to
actually look at the manual. After that, you needed the content to keep
them coming back.


Damien Braniff
Sr. Technical Writer
damienb -at- asg -dot- com

Waterfront Plaza
8, Lagan Bank Road
Belfast, N. Ireland BT1 3LR
Tel: +44 (0) 28.9072.3124
Fax: +44 (0) 28.9072.3324

ASG | www.asg.com

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