RE:What is More Important?

["Damien Braniff" <Damien -dot- Braniff -at- asg -dot- com>]

In the balance between content and 'design' content must come first. In
the balance between the two there are 4 possibilities. Very broadly:

1.	Good content + good design = excellent document

2.	Good content + poor design = usable document

3.	Poor content + good design = bad document

4.	Poor content + bad design = bad document

In a survey I did for my MA users said that:
1.	A well designed, 'professional' looking document (look, style,
layout, navigation, language etc) was more likely to be read (or even
looked at!)

2.	If what they needed wasn't there then it was unlikely to be
looked at again.

3.	If both content and design were there this created an overall
'feel-good' factor that transferred (at least in part!) to the product
and made them more likely to look a products from the same vendor (docs
as sales aids).

Damien
--- richard -dot- melanson -at- us -dot- tel -dot- com wrote:
May I ask everyone a question. What is more important, having the
content of a manual written well or having the content of a manual
technically accurate, and no they are not mutually exclusive :-)



Damien Braniff
Sr. Technical Writer
damienb -at- asg -dot- com

Waterfront Plaza
8, Lagan Bank Road
Belfast, N. Ireland BT1 3LR
Tel: +44 (0) 28.9072.3124
Fax: +44 (0) 28.9072.3324

ASG | www.asg.com

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