Re: Question: Usability

["Parks, Beverly" <ParksB -at- EMH1 -dot- HQISEC -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL>]

I've seen this done in the Dummies and Idiot's Guides books. Technical
information is in a shaded sidebar marked with some sort of "This is
real technical stuff" icon. Readers can choose to read it or not,
depending on their interest level or need to know.

The ratio of techy stuff to basic stuff in those books is small, so this
method works well, IMO. In your case, it sounds like you have a 50/50
ratio, so I don't know how well integrating it would work. It might
break up the continuity for both audiences--not good. Perhaps the
technical stuff could go in back, with pointers to it from the
appropriate places in the user guide.

Bev Parks
parksb -at- emh1 -dot- hqisec -dot- army -dot- mil
http://www.bayside.net/users/cbsites/techwr-l/


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bergen, Jane [SMTP:janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM]
> I'm looking at combining some very technical material with a user
> guide.
> Both are fairly small (less than 100 pages). Previously we used two
> separate documents, but I'm considering integrating the material. I
> want
> to do it in a way that neither intimidates less technical users nor
> "turns off" the techies. Has anyone else done this successfully? If
> so,
> how?
>
> My initial thought was to somehow set apart the technical notes
> (different font, icons, sidebars, text boxes, etc.) but keep it
> integrated organizationally with the user stuff. It seems like I've
> seen
> this done somewhere....
        <snip>