Re: Display, Displays, or Appears? (take II)

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Jim Shaeffer notes: << I am loathe to quibble with anything that  
Geoff says, but when he says: "If the  software fails to behave  
properly, describing what they should be  seeing -- but are not  
seeing -- is frustrating at best, and  intimidating or infuriating at  
worst."  I wonder, is it not risking more trouble if the software  
does not behave as expected, but the user blithely tries to perform  
the remaining steps in the procedure?>>

Don't loathe the quibble. In intelligent debate are interesting  
things revealed, including my imprecisions and malfeasance and  
occasional outright ignorance. <g>

<<I would frequently cop out by writing something like: To framject  
the ubi: 1. Click the Ubi button to access the Ubi Dialog box...>>

That works just fine, and indeed, I've done just that. Alternatively,  
I've used the imperative form: "Display the Ubi dialog box by  
clicking..." That's actually a good way to slip in the context and  
make it explicit without seeming to be doing so. Some day I'd love to  
have time to test these various variants to see which ones work best  
in practice, not just in theory.

Leonard Porello noted: <<As I recall, Minimalist theory suggests that  
results should be included only when needed for error mitigation.>>

I was using "minimalist" in the generic sense, namely that of  
minimizing the number of words without sacrificing clarity. Your  
recall fits with my recollection, though it's been a while since I  
looked into this. I also have a memory that minimalist theory, sensu  
John Carroll, is more about learning than about doing; that is, it's  
designed around the notion of tutorials that encourage exploration  
and learning by trial and error rather than bread-and-butter  
procedural information. Treat that memory as suspect until confirmed...

Milan Davidovic wondered: <<1. Click A. 2. Select C. If C is  
unavailable to be selected, then the reader knows something is wrong;  
we don't need to say "The B dialog box appears" in Step 1. Correct?>>

That works for me. Of course, we haven't really tried to nail down  
the role of context in this discussion. Some contexts require more  
handholding and more explicit statement of the results than others.  
I'm not sure there's an easy way to define which is which.

In a similar vein, Deborah Hemstreet noted: <<I think that the  
redundancy is possible - but it depends on who your user is, as well  
as the complexity of the system. That is why I usually place results  
of an action on an indented unbulleted line under the action command.  
The reader can quickly jump to 1 > 2 > 3 and get the job done - but  
people who are struggling with what/how/when/where will get the  
additional "redundant" information.>>

Very much so. It's a good way to layer information, particularly in  
print (where you can't do expanding/collapsing views of the content).  
I believe information mapping uses this approach to good effect, but  
again, it's been a few years.

----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
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