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I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you mean
by your approach. However, I can say that I used what
might be a similar chunking approach at my last job.
The chapters corresponded to major functional areas.
Within each chapter, the first section was conceptual.
It was usually called "Fundamental Concepts" or
something like that. This is where information like
data storage or lifecycles would be discussed (i.e.
how the things the user does affect the application or
concepts the user needs to understand to apply the
application intelligently). Then, the middle of the
chapter was focused on tasks -- specific tasks with
procedures to accomplish them. The end of each chapter
included a scenario (like your Lessons?) that applied
the concepts and procedures to a real-world situation.
We found this to be very effective. I also think users
liked it for these reasons:
* new users could read the conceptual information and
use the scenarios to apply it
* trainers could use the scenarios as labs
* experienced users could just refer to procedures if
they already understood the concepts
For the writers, this structure allowed us to build
pretty good online help by single-sourcing from the
Procedures sections. Where applicable, we used the
Fundamental Concepts as related topics in online help.
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