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> I still wonder about the "redundancy" however. I agree that too much
> branching can be unusable -- this is more true of hard-copy than of on-line
> documentation (because it is harder to flip through pages of a book than it
> is to click on an icon or a text link). However, in the help file, you want
> brevity. Perhaps this is a case of me not understanding what you mean by
> background information or what type of information is redundant.
> For instance a design may have popups for every button on every screen.
> Each time you explain the "close" button, it will be remarkably the same.
> However, you want your users to be able to get the information with only
> one click, so you explain it each time it occurs. This may seem redundant
> from the writer's standpoint, but not from the user's.
I think that this kind of redundancy is the most useful.
Particularly when a document serves as a reference. And,
since help screens are primarily reference, this kind of
thing is almost essential, even for hypertext help.
> Or you may explain on every window topic what the program does, what a
> "window" is, etc. This is redundant and should be placed in a separate
> topic; however, it could be just one or two clicks away if the user needs
> it.
It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between
the redundancy described above and the type you
describe here. I know one developer who insists on
telling the user to press <enter> after every step,
even though her audience is a system administrator.
That, clearly, is unnecessary. I think the best
strategy is to include a one (or at most two) sentence
summary of a particular item on a specific help screen,
with a hypertext link to the section describing the
"background."
I would do this only with the previous level of complexity.
For instance, if a specific procedure describes how to
attach a certain piece of hardware, I would include a
sentence or two about hardware conventions in general
with a link to a screen on that topic. I wouldn't,
however, define the word "hardware."
Scott McD.
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