Re: Question on content relevance

Excellent point! After we specify that illustrations should be there, we
can tackle helping authors determine how to do it well ...

					Anne

At 07:01 PM 3/29/01 -0800, Adam Victor Reed wrote:
>I joined this list recently, so please be gentle with me if this is
>a topic that was already discussed here.
>
>Non-text illustrations (particularly in instruction manuals, or on web
>pages that deliver the user interface of a hardware, software, or
>service system) often contain many details that are not relevant to
>the task at hand. This irrelevant content will distract or disable
>some users, and will slow down, to the point of interfering with
>productivity, many more. I remember (from my days at Bell Labs) a
>documentation guideline to use line drawings, with relevant
>information only, rather than photographs (which tend to include
>irrelevant detail) as illustrations in technical manuals.
>
>Two questions:
>
>1. Is minimizing irrelevant detail something that should be explicitly
>included in the (upper case G) Guidelines?
>
>2. Is this a valid concern with respect to checkpoint instructions?
>For example, should one be concerned that the "all" in "a text
>equivalent for _all_ non-text content" will lead developers to include
>irrelevant elements of illustrations in the replacement text?
>-- 
>				Adam Reed
>				areed2@calstatela.edu
>				 
>Context matters. Seldom does *anything* have only one cause.
>
>
Anne Pemberton
apembert@erols.com

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45

Received on Friday, 30 March 2001 11:49:36 UTC