RE: Go to? Switch to?

Subject: RE: Go to? Switch to?
From: Vlada Goldin <vlada_goldin -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: lhickling -at- Express-Scripts -dot- com
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 03:31:08 -0700 (PDT)

Lisa H wrote:
>Are you really comfortable telling users what to "enter" without
>hinting
>at why you have requested that action? In my experience, "why" is
>equally important as the "how" because whys foster learning by
>comprehension and instead of by rote.

Hi,

I think you're right about the importance of "whys" but I'd put them in an introductory paragraph rather than within operating instructions. IMO, wordy explanations distract users from the actual procedure flow. I guess that those who want to perform the procedure, know why they do this. They just don't know how. If they know neither why nor how, they can read the entire section from the beginning and get the explanations before getting to the instructions.

Best regards,
Vlada Goldin

Technical Communicator
Amdocs Israel


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