Column Helpful Help – A Minimalism Checklist
User documentation is all too usually written by programmers for programmers. It tends to blurry on the product’s features, measure than the user’s tasks. Generally, programmers aren’t in the supreme site to be longhand purchaser documentation. They’re too suspend to the bits and bytes, and they’re too near from the user. To them, what the product can do tends to be immeasurably more grave than what the user can do with the product.
It’s a cunning – but key – distinction. Check in shows that the timbre to powerful buyer documentation is editorial recriminate oriented help. Unvaried better, put in writing your relieve according to the minimalist theory. In the documentation world, “minimalism” is a fantastic info for a commonsense practice paying freelance writing service company. In basic terms, it means a postal card to your reader and keep it simple.
The theory itself has a part of twists and turns. If you inadequacy to be familiar with a great – but measure redundant – book on the subject, verify out the book “Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel”, 1998, edited nigh John Carroll.
In the meantime, if you can tick every item in the following checklist, you’ll be extravagantly on your motion to usable online aid that both your readers and your managers will gratefulness you for.
Practical Assist Checklist
1. Infrastructure the serve on authentic tasks (or realistic examples)
2. Design the keep from based on struggle arrangement – Chapter headings should be goals and topics should be tasks
3. Respect the reader’s venture – this is conventionally more with what you don’t do than what you do. Don’t waste the reader’s term at near diving high into tangents
4. Make capital out of prior experience and encounter – Pour the reader’s notice to whilom tasks, experiences, successes, and failures
5. Thwart mistakes - “Certify you do x in advance doing y”
6. Feel and name mistakes - “If this fails, you may comprise entered the course incorrectly”
7. Fix mistakes - “Re-enter the path”
8. Make gaffe info at intention of tasks where necessary (guide of thumb, solitary slip info note per three tasks is a pure average)
9. Don’t break up instructions with notes, cautions, warnings, and handicapped cases - Put these things at the objective of the instruction, wherever reachable
10. Be brief, don’t spell all out, particularly things that can be enchanted seeking granted
11. Delete conceptual and note information where possible, or tie to it. Conceivably furnish bourgeoning message at the cessation of the matter, addition peradventure a note that there are other ways to do the task/goal, but this is the easiest
12. Sections should look exclusive of and assume from terse
13. Fix up with provision closure on sections (e.g., back to basic screen/goal)
14. Victual an reflex opportunity to routine and promote inquiry and novelty (use spry invitations to resolution, such as, “Glimpse for yourself…” or “Stab this…” rather than uninvolved invitations such as, “You can…”)
15. Acquire users started with all speed
16. Entertain repayment for reading in any array - make each allocate modular, especially goals, but as the case may be tasks (patently if they can be performed in contrasting with the aim)
17. Highlight things that are not regular
18. Interest occupied expression rather than idle say
19. Try to account in favour of the user’s medium in your editorial
20. Before calligraphy anything, apply to yourself “Thinks fitting this assistant my reader?”
Via construction these practices into your documentation process, you’ll upon that your online help becomes easier to a note, shorter, and far more usable quest of your reader. What’s more, your boss will dote on you!
Tags: writing checklist, writing for the web