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RE: Proof that content is more important than style
Subject:RE: Proof that content is more important than style From:"Damien Braniff" <DBraniff -at- amphion -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 18 Nov 2002 08:40:46 -0000
Content is important - primary.
Style is important - secondary.
HOW secondary we could debate ad infinitum but I'd say that it's down to who you're writing for. Generalising (very broadly!) technical documents were written by techies for techies. Look at the early computer manuals - they were written for people who wanted to know how they worked, what registers did what etc. Today techies are tweaking PCs to over-clock for better performance etc. Nothing has really changed here. Here the design isn't too important (though that's changing - even techies expect some basic design and navigation) - as long as the information is there they'll find it.
What has changed is that there is a new computer audience - people who don't really care about the nuts and bolts, only that it works and does what they want it to do. If they want to know how to do something then they want to be able to look it up in an index, go to the relevant page and follow a set of simple instructions and then forget about it. Here the design is VERY important - if they can't find what they want easily (even if it's there somewhere) then, all other things being equal, they may well look at a different make when the come to replace their PC. It's plain economic sense to have well designed documentation. The content must be there as well but the relative importance is much closer to 50:50.
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