Levels of detail -- are we beyond this?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Tom Johnson wondered: <<I just ran into some detailed instructions on  
going to a website that look like this:
    1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking *Start* > *Programs* >  
*Internet
    Explorer*.
    2. In the *Address* field, enter *http://sampleurl.com* and press  
*Enter*.
Is it me, or is this kind of detail totally unnecessary in this day  
and age?>>

It's you. <g> Actually, I'm only partially kidding about this. The  
real answer is that the level of detail depends entirely on your  
audience. There's still a startling degree of computer illiteracy out  
there, and unless you can be sure that your audience already knows  
these kinds of things, sometimes you really do have to provide  
"training wheels".

For most of what we techwhirlers do, "Go to the following address:  
[address]" would suffice to replace these instructions. For that  
matter, we might simply say "Register at the following address". We  
can safely assume that our audience knows how to do all the basic  
computer tasks related to registering, particularly with a well- 
designed interface. But there are many important audiences (e.g.,  
refugees from developing countries, seniors who never learned to use  
computers on the job) who really do need this level of help. I've  
worked with some of them in the past.

Probably what's more important is to start by asking ourselves what  
kind of person would be using what we're documenting. If nobody  
without a certain minimal level of expertise would even consider  
using the product, then we can eliminate any "training wheels" that  
expertise provides; for example, we no longer need to explain how to  
use the mouse or keyboard in software documentation.

But if we were distributing a brochure to teach seniors how to use an  
online government benefits registration system, we might well need to  
provide that level of detail. We probably wouldn't make it part of  
every screen, because that would seriously piss off most of our  
audience (since most now know how to do this), but it would probably  
be appropriate to provide this information via a "Need help?" link.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
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