Re: Chapter summaries at start of doc: yes/no?

Subject: Re: Chapter summaries at start of doc: yes/no?
From: "Julia Countryman" <julia -dot- countryman -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "Jessica Weissman" <Jessica -dot- Weissman -at- hillcrestlabs -dot- com>, "Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:01:25 -0700

AFA as I can recall, books with summaries at the beginning of the chapter
tend to be textbook like in nature. If it were in a userdoc, as a reader, I
probably would just skip it unless it was very difficult material to grok. I
agree with Jessica, put any summary material in a Getting Started doc or in
an overview.

Julia


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jessica Weissman" <Jessica -dot- Weissman -at- hillcrestlabs -dot- com>
To: "Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>
Cc: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 10:34 AM
Subject: RE: Chapter summaries at start of doc: yes/no?




For an ordinary API or user doc I wouldn't put in those summaries. They
serve little purpose (unlike a small advance organizer at the start of a
chapter/section), and are hard to keep up to date.

If your topic needs an overview, it may make sense as a separate Getting
Started doc. Yes, I realize those two concepts aren't exactly the same,
but sometimes the Getting Started doc does what an overview is supposed
to do.

Anecdote: when I was developing CBT I worked with a PhD instructional
designer who had an overview for every topic, including multiple-choice
interaction. We canned those extra screens right away, especially since
the same stuff in the same words was repeated not too much later. She
even had an introductory page for the overview.

You can justify it in instructional design theory terms, but not in
deadline terms.

Jessica Weissman
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References:
RE: Chapter summaries at start of doc: yes/no?: From: Jessica Weissman

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