Writing Helpful Help ? A Minimalism Checklist
User documentation is all too often written by programmers for programmers. It tends to focus on the product's features, rather than the user's tasks. Generally, programmers aren't in the ideal position to be writing user documentation. They're too close to the bits and bytes, and they're too far from the user. To them, what the product can do tends to be far more important than what the user can do with the product.
It's a subtle ? but vital ? distinction. Research shows that the key to effective user documentation is writing task oriented help. Even better, write your help according to the minimalist theory. In the documentation world, "minimalism" is a fancy word for a commonsense practice. In basic terms, it means write to your reader and keep it simple.
The theory itself has a lot of twists and turns. If you want to read a great ? but slightly wordy ? book on the subject, check out the book "Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel", 1998, edited by John Carroll. In the meantime, if you can tick every item in the following checklist, you'll be well on your way to usable online help that both your readers and your managers will thank you for.Helpful Help Checklist1. Base the help on real tasks (or realistic examples)2. Structure the help based on task sequence ? Chapter headings should be goals and topics should be tasks3.
Respect the reader's activity ? this is generally more about what you don't do than what you do. Don't waste the reader's time by diving off into tangents4. Exploit prior knowledge and experience ? Draw the reader's attention to previous tasks, experiences, successes, and failures5. Prevent mistakes - "Ensure you do x before doing y"6. Detect and identify mistakes - "If this fails, you may have entered the path incorrectly"7.
Fix mistakes - "Re-enter the path"8. Provide error info at end of tasks where necessary (rule of thumb, one error info note per three tasks is a good average)9. Don't break up instructions with notes, cautions, warnings, and exceptional cases - Put these things at the end of the instruction, wherever possible10. Be brief, don't spell everything out, especially things that can be taken for granted11. Omit conceptual and note information where possible, or link to it.
Perhaps provide expansion information at the end of the topic, plus maybe a note that there are other ways to perform the task/goal, but this is the easiest12. Sections should look short and read short13. Provide closure for sections (e.g., back to original screen/goal)14. Provide an immediate opportunity to act and encourage exploration and innovation (use active invitations to act, such as, "See for yourself..." or "Try this..." rather than passive invitations such as, "You can...")15. Get users started quickly16.
Allow for reading in any order - make each section modular, especially goals, but perhaps tasks (definitely if they can be performed in different order)17. Highlight things that are not typical18. Use active voice rather than passive voice19. Try to account for the user's environment in your writing20. Before writing anything, ask yourself "Will this help my reader?"By building these practices into your documentation process, you'll find that your online help becomes easier to write, shorter, and far more usable for your reader.
What's more, your boss will love you!.
Glenn Murray heads advertising copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.divinewrite.com for further details or more FREE articles.Happy Birthday Wishes for Founder of World's First Gay and Lesbian (GLBTI) Wedding Company
The energy behind the groundbreaking wedding firm, savvyplanners.com, is the unstoppable Marc Savant.
He celebrates a pre-40's birthday today.
After a magnificent feature in the Washington Times and UPI, last week, Savant has been happily busy and honored to receive so many inquiries about the offerings of savvypplanners.com.Born in NJ, Savant has been working for the past two years on the savvyplanners.com project and the last 9 years honing his directorial and administrative skills in the event planning, personal concierge and wedding planning areas.Today marks a special milestone for Savant, both professionally and personally.
He has authorised the company to make a special gift available to one lucky couple.Savant has approved the gifting of a three-night (honeymoon) stay on Key West for the next couple to book a full wedding in June or July.
The distinction is that the savvyplanners.com services offering features standard, deluxe, luxury and VIP...
Birthday invitations > Happy Birthday Wishes for Founder of World's First Gay and Lesbian (GLBTI) Wedding Company
BMD-Certificates.co.uk Celebrates the Birthday of Kevin Rowland With Their Birth Certificate
(ContentDesk) August 17, 2005 -- BMD-Certificates (www.BMD-Certificates.co.uk), a website which offers a specialized service to search for and supply copy certified and official U.K. birth certificates, marriage certificates, and death certificates, celebrates the birthday of Kevin Rowland by making their birth certificate available as part of their services, which can be purchased by visiting http://www.bmd-certificates.co.uk/kevin_rowland.htmlThis birth certificate is one of a ongoing series commemorating some of the great people who have been born in the UK and gone on to world prominence in their field, and offers an unique glimpse into their life, and are the perfect item for collectors, fans, historians and researchers alike.All certificates are full and official birth certificates acquired from the relevant General Register...
BMD-Certificates.co.uk Celebrates the Birthday of Kevin Rowland With Their Birth Certificate
Birthday invitations > BMD-Certificates.co.uk Celebrates the Birthday of Kevin Rowland With Their Birth Certificate
Vital tips on making your own wedding invitations ...
If you want to design and print your own wedding stationery and don't know where to start, here are a few tips that hopefully will get you on your way. If you want to know more you may like to purchase our guidebook "How To Create Perfect Wedding Stationery" which includes 38 pages of vital info for DIY'ers. It comes with software to help you get the job done easily. Visit our site at www.invitationexpress.com.au.You should select your design before firming up your ideas on paper and cards etc. Simply because the design will largely dictate what paper and card you can use.
For example; If you have a card with a folded insert, you will not be able to use single sided papers. If the design you choose requires a translucent or vellum paper remember to assess your printer's capabilities, especially if you want to print onto translucents. An alternative is to have the translucent blank and overlay it onto the printed sheet.Choose your envelopes now, or at least check out the cost....
Vital tips on making your own wedding invitations ...
Birthday invitations > Vital tips on making your own wedding invitations ...
Stationery Company Launches Online Wholesale Site
ORLANDO, FL (ContentDesk) August 11, 2005 -- Blue Moon Paperie, LLC, designers of unique and trend setting stationery products announced today the launch of their online wholesale stationery web site.Wholesale customers, with a valid user name and password, can now place orders directly from the Blue Moon wholesale web site, receive instant invoices for purchases and track orders online. The site also serves as Blue Moon's most current catalog, containing their entire collection of imprintables, notes, post cards and stationery items.Easy to download order forms, price sheets and line sheets offer a more traditional way of purchasing via mail or fax.Wholesale vendors using the new site will automatically be signed up to receive new product announcements, specials and coupons throughout the year.About Blue MoonBlue Moon Invitations, Inc. offers a unique line of invitations and contemporary stationery for wedding, baby, occasion and holiday. Their design style is described as modern classic...
Stationery Company Launches Online Wholesale Site
Birthday invitations > Stationery Company Launches Online Wholesale Site
BMD-Certificates.co.uk Celebrates the Birthday of Kevin Rowland With Their Birth Certificate
(ContentDesk) August 17, 2005 -- BMD-Certificates (www.BMD-Certificates.co.uk), a website which offers a specialized service to search for and supply copy certified and official U.K. birth certificates, marriage certificates, and death certificates, celebrates the birthday of Kevin Rowland by making their birth certificate available as part of their services, which can be purchased by visiting http://www.bmd-certificates.co.uk/kevin_rowland.htmlThis birth certificate is one of a ongoing series commemorating some of the great people who have been born in the UK and gone on to world prominence in their field, and offers an unique glimpse into their life, and are the perfect item for collectors, fans, historians and researchers alike.All certificates are full and official birth certificates acquired from the relevant General Register...
BMD-Certificates.co.uk Celebrates the Birthday of Kevin Rowland With Their Birth Certificate
Birthday invitations > BMD-Certificates.co.uk Celebrates the Birthday of Kevin Rowland With Their Birth Certificate
Successful Children's Birthday Party Activities
Successful Children's Birthday Party Activities~ lots of fun, cheap, creative and even bilingual! ~by Having now somewhat recovered from Emily's seventh birthday party, I thought I'd share a couple of the more popular games and activities, used by a group of children between the ages of 4 and 10.Bilingual Vocabulary Picture BingoAs a unilingual home schooling American in Europe, I've got a fairly singular set of conditions to work under when creating activities. This bingo game was a hit with lots of repeat requests.Materials needed:
Birthday invitations > Successful Children's Birthday Party Activities