RE: is more verbiage needed?

["Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com>]

Thanks for the feedback. Before I respond to Karen, I'd point out, it is
as Richards says. A click expands a section that contains all the
necessary details.

Karen raises an important issue. Making a reader click is just one more
thing standing between the reader and the information. So, why have the
reader click to expand a section? A good question. It was in response to
this question that I decided to have only one page rather than three
discrete pages (one page for each platform). In fact, before I created
the expanding sections, I had all of the info Info Mapped on a single
page (as Karen suggests).

However, here's the rub. Either way, the reader is going to have to do
some type of work. Certainly, if the info is hidden away in expanding
sections, the reader has to click on a platform name to expand a
section. However, even if all of the info is laid out, the reader still
has to (cognitively) filter out the info he doesn't need.

In the end, I decided that the work of clicking to expand a section was
less of a burden (as well as more esthetically pleasing) to a reader
than having to filter out info about platforms in which he is not
interested. And even though we are not talking about an overwhelming
amount of info, enabling the reader to see info for only the platform in
which he is interested prevents him from confusing the requirements for
one platform (RAM, HD, CPU) with another.

Leonard C. Porrello
SoleraTec LLC
www.soleratec.com
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Karen Mulholland
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 8:11 AM
To: Combs, Richard; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: is more verbiage needed?

No, I read the whole thing.
But why demand that extra click?

Strip the information down to what a reader needs
right now, and make that whole logical chunk available
right there. Don't ask the reader to do any more work
than absolutely necessary.

When a spare topic is the gateway to three small and
similar topics, it's often a sign to streamline the
document structure by presenting the "target" topics
all in one place. In this instance, the information
would probably work well as a table.

KEM


--- "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
wrote:

> 
> Karen, you stopped reading Leonard's description too
> soon. 

(snip)
> 
> > Except for the header, each phrase is a hyperlink
> that expands a table
> 
> > containing the application's OS, hardware, and
> software requirements 
> > for each platform.
> 
> Those three OS names are merely the gateway to
> details regarding that
> platform (including OS requirements). 

(snip)
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