Re: Is there a study on reading warnings, notes?

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

This is why there's a distinction between warnings, cautions
and notes, and why warnings often are accompanied by
graphics of human forms being crushed, burned, gassed,
poisoned or otherwise folded, spindled and mutilated.

A partial list of my past products, both as an engineer and
a writer (I think I've mentioned some of these previously):

Helicopter rescue hoists
Handling and loading equipment for ICBMs
Semiconductor fabrication equipment (lethal chemicals, megavoltages, lasers)
Mass spectrometer and chromatography instruments (more lasers)
DNA sequencers (still more lasers)
Architectural/industrial scanning equipment (surprise! lasers again)
Aircraft power management systems

The risks involved with operating some of these incorrectly
may not be immediately obvious; others you'd hear about
immediately if someone made a big enough mistake.

Gene Kim-Eng




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com>

Granted I get the gist of the example you provided, I agree that it would work 
better were it integrated into the procedure (rather than as a call-out). It 
sounds more like an essential consideration that is part of the procedure rather 
than something external to the process. You might also consider telling the user 
why he needs to do that or what will happen if he ignores the directions. For 
example, "Place couplers to allow for vertical and horizontal signal runs; this 
will enable to job to complete without interruption."

It also occurs to me that if you use call-outs for non-critical information, 
user's might start ignoring callouts and miss those that truly are critical.


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