Re: What exactly is minimalist documentation?

[Megan McMacken <mcmackme -at- FRC -dot- COM>]

>I have a vague sense of what minimalist documentation probably is, but I
need to
>be able to define it by this evening.  Can anyone help me out here?  Does
>anyone do this kind of documentation? What is its advantage?  Thanks!!


A man by the name of John Carroll (sp?) did extensive research on minimalist
writing and wrote a book based on his findings.  Unfortunately, I don't
recall the name of the book.

A friend of mine gave a presentation on Minimalism after doing a literature
review on the subject.  Here are a few of the key points I remember:

--Minimalist writing doesn't repeat instructions that are found elsewhere in
the documentation, as opposed to modular writing, which tries to tell the
user in each module _everything_ they need to know to perform the task.

--Minimalist writing uses an abundance of illustrations and pictures to
convey information rather than using words.  You'll see this in How-to
manuals showing you how to set up your new PC, etc.

--Minimalist documentation is "bare bones" documentation.  Some users may
find that it doesn't offer the detailed information they'd like, while
others are happy to be given only the basic information.

Hope that helps.

Megan

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Megan E. McMacken
Product Development and Documentation
FANUC Robotics North America, Inc.
Rochester Hills, Michigan
megan -dot- mcmacken -at- fanucrobotics -dot- com


   If it's about technical communication--post it! If not, don't!
Posts: mailto:techwr-l -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
Commands: mailto:listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g. SIGNOFF TECHWR-L)
Archives: http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html,
	http://www.documentation.com/, or http://www.dejanews.com/
Subjects: JOB:, QUESTION:, SUMMARY:, ANNOUNCE:, or none of these.