Re: 7 plus or minus 2

[Pat Gantt <pagantt -at- POSTOFFICE -dot- WORLDNET -dot- ATT -dot- NET>]

> > > The documentation's purpose and form, the information's complexity and
> > > depth, and the audience's knowledge and experience are all far more
> > > important than Miller's 7+/-2 research in deciding how long a list
> > > should be.

{not me above}

> [snip...]
>
> > Exactly! Audience, audience, audience! Wonderful post.

> So you're agreeing that there's no magic number -- it all depends on
> the audience, purpose of docs, etc.
>
> > I keep my bullets to no more than 5.
>
> But if there's no magic number, why follow an arbitrary limit of five
> items, regardless of audience, purpose. . .?

Nope I said I try to keep mine to no more than 5.
I like small steps.

I do pictures left bullets right. 5 is usually all the
steps I do per graphic.

Of course it varies from audience-to-audience
how many bullets per graphic and the complexity per
step.

Rarely do I need more than five.

I have had it drilled into me to keep things incredibly
simple. Simple is hard actually. Requires hours and hours
of editing even an easy procedure. I test the procedure
out on as many volunteers of varying skill levels before
the final publishing.

For more clues and hints and checklists please see
Mager's 6 Pack.

Checklists are a different matter. They can be longer.
--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Best Regards,

Pat Gantt, M.S. HRD
Personal email ~ pagantt -at- worldnet -dot- att -dot- net
The University of Tennessee Alum
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