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Labs/Ubiquity/Documentation/Documentation Style Guidelines: Difference between revisions
Labs/Ubiquity/Documentation/Documentation Style Guidelines (view source)
Revision as of 01:57, 3 August 2009
, 3 August 2009→Procedural Instruction
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# Tap option + space bar | # Tap option + space bar | ||
# Type: wikipedia firefox | # Type: wikipedia firefox | ||
# You should see this exact screen: [[Image | # You should see this exact screen: [[Image]] | ||
# Tap the Enter key to open the Wikipedia article in a new tab | # Tap the Enter key to open the Wikipedia article in a new tab | ||
This how the above example requires no previous knowledge that the user needs to press option and spacebar to bring up ubiquity. | This how the above example requires no previous knowledge that the user needs to press option and spacebar to bring up ubiquity. | ||
=== Rational === | |||
Thus minimalist documentation is focused on examples of tasks, there is no attempt to teach the underlying models of operation. '''Real users are trying to do something''', not understand the grand scheme of things. | |||
By focusing on procedural, task based instruction, minimalist documentation caters to how users naturally browse documentation and think about their problems. | |||
Users interaction with documentation occurs when they are inhibited in performing a task. When users want to kill the paper clip, they do not take a tutorial on how to use word or read from the beginning of the manual- they skip to the “paper clip” chapter hoping to find something about turning it off. | |||
Tutorials and other traditional documentation which strive to give conceptual overviews are the best way to learn. Volumes of psychological research prove that the thorough processing prompted by a conceptual overview improves retention and performance. | |||
However, the typical setting for traditional psychological tests of learning guarantee both motivation and attention -such as work training. Web browsers are a glass pane- their purpose is to deliver content, their utility invisible, their new features just smudges on the glass, obscuring the view of their content. | |||
Thus, the Minimalist method of procedural instruction gets a user onboard and gets to the broad conceptual understanding later. | |||
== Minimal Wording == | == Minimal Wording == | ||