Re: Documentation Theory?

["Jacobs, Christina" <cjacobs -at- VA -dot- RR -dot- COM>]

Ivan,

I'm aware of these theories as theories of learning, not theories of
documentation.  They've been around for a very very long time in Education
circles.  I have no earthly idea whether they're taught in technical
communication courses or not.  I picked it up while getting my Elementary
Education degree.

The three types refer to the way a person learns information.  Auditory
people are people who retain information best if they hear it somehow.
Typically these people do best with written paragraphs of information, as
reading it siliently (and hearing it in their minds) works best for them.
Visual people are people who are more spatially oriented.  These are people
who require graphic representations of abstract concepts, in addition to
the usual screen shots.  Kinesthetic people are people who require some
kind of movement for optimum retention.  This is harder to deal with in
printed doc.  Tables where a person can run a finger underneath to find
info and lots of active verbs and descriptions of where to find something
in an interface are probably the best you can do.  These are the kinds of
people who might do better with help or HTML doc than printed docs.

Hope that helps some,
Chris

At 07:51 AM 6/1/99 -0700, you wrote:
~Have I been in a cave, is this the new way of
~doing things?
~
~IG

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