User documentation is all too often written by programmers for
programmers. It tends to focus on the product's features, rather
than the user's tasks. Generally, programmers aren't in the
ideal position to be writing user documentation. They're too
close to the bits and bytes, and they're too far from the user.
To them, what the product can do tends to be far more important
than what the user can do with the product.
It's a subtle - but vital - distinction. Research shows that the
key to effective user documentation is writing task oriented
help. Even better, write your help according to the minimalist
theory. In the documentation world, "minimalism" is a fancy word
for a commonsense practice. In basic terms, it means write to
your reader and keep it simple.
The theory itself has a lot of twists and turns. If you want to
read a great - but slightly wordy - book on the subject, check
out the book "Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel", 1998,
edited by John Carroll.
In the meantime, if you can tick every item in the following
checklist, you'll be well on your way to usable online help that
both your readers and your managers will thank you for.
Helpful Help Checklist
1. Base the help on real tasks (or realistic examples)
2. Structure the help based on task sequence - Chapter headings
should be goals and topics should be tasks
3. Respect the reader's activity - this is generally more about
what you don't do than what you do. Don't waste the reader's
time by diving off into tangents
4. Exploit prior knowledge and experience - Draw the reader's
attention to previous tasks, experiences, successes, and failures
5. Prevent mistakes - "Ensure you do x before doing y"
6. Detect and identify mistakes - "If this fails, you may have
entered the path incorrectly"
7. Fix mistakes - "Re-enter the path"
8. Provide error info at end of tasks where necessary (rule of
thumb, one error info note per three tasks is a good average)
9. Don't break up instructions with notes, cautions, warnings,
and exceptional cases - Put these things at the end of the
instruction, wherever possible
10. Be brief, don't spell everything out, especially things that
can be taken for granted
11. Omit conceptual and note information where possible, or link
to it. Perhaps provide expansion information at the end of the
topic, plus maybe a note that there are other ways to perform
the task/goal, but this is the easiest
12. Sections should look short and read short
13. Provide closure for sections (e.g., back to original
screen/goal)
14. Provide an immediate opportunity to act and encourage
exploration and innovation (use active invitations to act, such
as, "See for yourself..." or "Try this..." rather than passive
invitations such as, "You can...")
15. Get users started quickly
16. Allow for reading in any order - make each section modular,
especially goals, but perhaps tasks (definitely if they can be
performed in different order)
17. Highlight things that are not typical
18. Use active voice rather than passive voice
19. Try to account for the user's environment in your writing
20. Before writing anything, ask yourself "Will this help my
reader?"
By building these practices into your documentation process,
you'll find that your online help becomes easier to write,
shorter, and far more usable for your reader. What's more, your
boss will love you!
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