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... and read Problems for "minimalism" written by Stephen W. Draper
of the Department of Psychology at the University of Glasgow in 1995.
The Abstract says: "This paper offers several different kinds of
overview or review of the minimalist approach to writing user manuals
for software.
The first is to list some common practical problems that arise for
authors of minimal manuals, such as whether to give explanations,
which are mainly due to apparently contradictory applications of the
minimalist principles. A second viewpoint comes from examining the
interaction and conflict between the aims of getting users to learn
and helping them achieve practical tasks as quickly as possible. The
argument for describing the approach as "action centered manuals"
rather than "minimal manuals" is presented. Still other
"review-points" are constructed from a mythical evolutionary history
of manual types, and from dividing manual design decisions into the
questions of what information to include, what access mechnanisms to
provide, what information delivery to use within sections, and what
success criteria to adopt for the manual."
It is a good, not necessarily hostile, critique of Carroll's book
(The Nurnberg Funnell) and he brings up a point or two that Ginny
Redish argued at the STC conference in Toronto about what users
expect us writers to do.
The paper also has a good bibliography.
FWIW.
Bill Sullivan
bsullivan -at- deltecpower -dot- com
San Diego, California
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