Re: Allocated chapter numbers for specific chapter content

["Ned Bedinger" <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Broberg, Mats" <mabr -at- flir -dot- se>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>

>A customer with previous job experience from the aircraft industry asked
>us if we have ever thought about allocating fixed chapter numbers for
>specific chapter content. The argument for such a regime would be that
>users would always know that they can find e.g. Electrical power system
>in Chapter 10, Maintenance & cleaning in Chapter 15, Glossary in Chapter
>19 etc.

I'll offer a few simple self-observations:

A product that has a unique approach to information design can tap into a
user's loyalties. In doing things differently, you have created a new reward
system for learning how to use it. You might need some 'opinion leaders' to
demonstrate the proper way to enthusiatically embrace your design, but CBT
can handle that.  Go ahead and put "Shutdown" on the Start menu.  Put "Find"
on the Edit menu--you'll be forgiven by the users because you're consistent
and they can trust you.  The fact that you have subverted logic and broken
with the past will not be an issue beyond the usability lab.

Let's say I have a hardware background that spans the range from manual
typewriter repair to computer-controlled electromechanical systems.  I have
a dozen different product manuals from each of several different
manufacturers.  I would readily grasp a consistently-ordered presentation of
chapters among the manuals from a single company.  Empty chapters speak
volumes about the product family and a particular product's place in it. I
would have no problem with a manual or series of manuals that follow a
company paradigm for the order of presentation.  In fact, I would appreciate
it a great deal.

I do have problems in that it takes only two manuals, presented  in
different sequences, to disrupt my ability to pick either one up and know
for sure where to look for the section I need. I suspect that this is an
aptitude thing, because I readily acquire and can retrieve much of what I
know about the different ways that manufacturers implement similar functions
in hardware, but I am not as sure-footed about the manuals. I accept this as
a shared limitation of mine and the media. Predictable documentation designs
can help.

I'd love to live in a time when information technology breaks the
sublimation barrier and I can finally "just know" without all the baggage of
media. But until that time, I resent not a whit the way manufacturers toy
with my allegiance, or the layer of cognitive turbulence that I pass through
when shifting from one manual to another.

To summarize, I am all for the consistent  presentation order, even if it
means I have to accept and internalize random stock blurbs like "This page
intentionally blank."  It takes only one blank page without the blurb to
make me feel that I am falling through space!

Ned Bedinger
Ed Wordsmith Technical Communications



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