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Subject:Re: Graphics vs Text From:Chris Borokowski <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:53:51 -0700 (PDT)
My preference, after some years of contemplation, is to get as close to
PowerPoint-style bullet lists and definition blobs with frequent
illustrations as possible. If I could, I'd also include video or
animations.
The reason is very simple. I want manuals to be a learning exercise,
not a reading exercise. People have little time, and are often under
the gun looking something up on the spot rather than reading the manual
as a whole for information. Given the state of most manuals, they're
not going to do that anyway.
In my world, Ikea-style illustration instructions could be done well,
even PowerPoint can be made redeemable, and while I love to write
descriptive text, it is best in small blobs associated with discrete
entities like definitions, steps, or conditions.
--- Ben <baj357 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> So to revive an older discussion
> conerning graphics vs. text in online help, what is the dominant
> philosophy about using graphics (with minimal text) to instruct users
> vs. using text only?
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