RE: Chunking information (Was: multiple TWs for a project)

["Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM>]

Jason, et al:

Which is where other types of media can come in very handy.  For hardware
assembly, Packard Bell and others found that a poster depicting the steps
with the related items worked extremely well (took me all of 10 minutes to
assemble my very first home computer back in 1994). I had it to refer to
when I moved, but it didn't take up much space on the bookshelves. Chunking
the information can be useful in figuring out how to distribute it!  

For software, one-time or infrequent tasks are best served by a
wizard--anything that doesn't need to be stored in short-term (or long-term
for that matter) memory.  You still ought to chunk it to figure out how much
can get crammed into a single step.  

What some call chunking might better be termed task analysis and document
planning! 

Connie Giordano 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Willebeek-LeMair [mailto:jlemair -at- cisco -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2000 12:43 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Chunking information (Was: multiple TWs for a project)


That is all well and good if you want the user to absorb the
information, but what if you want the user to simply perform the steps
of a procedure that they will only have to perform once (or once every
great while)?

[snip]
But, what is there to absorb?  Unless the user's sole job is to cram
boards into boxes, there is really nothing to absorb. Except for our
Board Crammer, this is a one-time deal for the user, so they probably do
not need to memorize dip switch and jumper settings, how to firmly seat
the board, how to plug the data cable, etc.

So why not cram it, let the user get the job done, and go back to
his/her actual job?

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: SusanP [mailto:susanp -at- astound -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2000 10:51 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Chunking information (Was: multiple TWs for a project)


"Chunking" is also a term used in psychology and Information Mapping.
The
principles are the same throughout. The human brain can only absorb 7
plus/minus two new ideas/concepts/steps at a time. Therefore,
Information
Mapping recommends that procedures be "chunked" into 5-9 steps maximum.