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This conversation piqued my interested because some of the folks in my
company recently asked the writers to add a lot more screen shots to our
documentation.
In that post, Steve Janoff mentions William Horton's article "Dump the Dumb
Screen Shots," which can be downloaded from Amazon:
"Dump the dumb screen dumps (Visual Literacy: Going Beyond Words in
Technical Communications)," by William Horton, published in the STC's
Technical Communication Jourmal in February 1993: http://www.amazon.com/Dump-screen-dumps-Visual-Literacy/dp/B00091ZDNO
Another article that has some interesting points is:
"Screen Captures in Software Documentation," by Hans Van Der Meij and Mark
Gellevij, published in the STC's Technical Communication Jourmal in the
fourth quarter of 1998: http://people.senecac.on.ca/david.mcgill/TCN705/screen_capture.pdf
The authors acknowledge that while the findings of screen shot research
have been mixed, they would recommend using screen shots.
Note, though, that those are all fairly old resources.
For a more recent perspective, see Tom Johnson's blog, "I'd Rather Be
Writing." The August 2007 blog entry is called "Rethinking the Importance
of Screenshots, Diagrams, and Other Visuals": http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/08/10/rethinking-the-importance-of-screenshots/#more-922
Tom writes "I now think screenshots are important to include even when
interface elements aren’t necessarily hidden. I’m not saying each step
needs a screenshot, but we should be more generous than stingy with
screenshots, graphics, diagrams, and other visual elements."
Cheryl
On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Porrello, Leonard
<lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com>wrote:
> Your theory is excellent, Ryan, and can probably be considered as part of
> the folklore of tech writing, but the research that I have seen doesn't
> bear out what your assertions. Instead, what the little research that has
> been done has found is that the only screen captures that notably help a
> user are those that are of a full screen AND which include call-outs.
> Otherwise, in timed performance, users of documentation with full screen
> captures (for the types of tasked being performed in the test--this is a
> big caveat) fared little better than users of documentation without screen
> captures. Users of documentation with only partial screen captures actually
> fared worse. Granted this and the additional cost that including screen
> captures adds in non-regulated environments, the argument from ROI for not
> including "too many" screen captures is pretty strong.
>
> Apart from the empirical research, there is the matter of better or worse
> theories. While the theory you present is compelling, I find John Carroll's
> minimalist theory much more compelling. The aim of Carroll's approach, in
> short, is to facilitate users in becoming self-directed learners.
>
> Having said all of that, I would argue that there is room for both
> approaches. If you don't mind the additional overhead of adding copious
> screen captures and only want user-monkeys who just follow the bread-crumbs
> through a procedure, then including lots of full-screen captures isn't a
> problem. If you want your users to become self-directed users, screen
> captures aren't generally necessary.
>
> Leonard
>
> PS, I seem to have misplaced the studies I had read several years ago.
> However, Steve Janoff is the one who shared them with me and he may still
> have them. As I recall, they were done by a PhD candidate in Sweden.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> Ryan Pollack
> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 7:31 AM
> To: Erika Yanovich
> Cc: Techwr-l
> Subject: Re: Screen captures
>
> As others have said, "it depends". Screenshots are like anything else
> (tables, bulleted lists, videos, paragraphs, etc); they are a tool you can
> use in order to bring about understanding in your readers. Here are some
> reasons why I find screenshots very useful:
>
> - Instead of "Select blah>>blah>>blah", a screenshot helps users follow
> a path visually instead of mentally translating steps into actions. This
> saves effort and time on their part.
> - The above goes doubly true if you have a dialog box with, say, 15
> options and the user has to act on one or two. Without a screenshot, the
> user has to spend a few seconds scanning the dialog box and trying to
> find
> the option you wrote down, following the menu tree you set out as they
> go.
> With a screenshot, you can highlight the necessary option, saving them
> this
> effort.
> - People don't read; they skim. People's eyes go straight to
> screenshots, which can save a lot of reading time, thus getting the user
> back into the software quicker and helping them feel better about the
> docs.
> - If a user is switching back & forth between the help and the software,
> a screenshot helps users keep their place in the column of text, so they
> can quickly return to the docs where they left off. It's much harder to
> find your place in a wall of text.
> - Screenshots generally add color to a document, making it more pleasing
> to the eye (if your UX person has done their job ;-)
> - Screenshots make the doc look less intimidating by breaking up, or
> obviating, large chunks of text. The less intimidating a doc looks, the
> more likely someone will be to read it, and the better they will feel
> about
> it overall.
>
> Of course screenshots have drawbacks:
>
> - They generally take multiple steps to generate (open your software
> program, get it into a proper state for taking a relevant screenshot,
> take
> screenshot, possibly annotate it, save it, insert into document, etc.
> - They are larger in size than text, which can affect storage space on
> disk, download times if you are doing online help, or file sizes if you
> are
> delivering a PDF.
> - They are larger in dimension than a block of text, increasing
> scrolling in online help and page count if you are delivering a printed
> manual.
> - They are not searchable, although if you are doing online help or
> adding captions, you can associate text w/screenshots in order to work
> around this. Keep in mind that not only can users not search, *you*
> can't
> -- which makes it harder to determine what portions of your
> documentation
> need to change when a new feature comes around.
> - They are binary, so if you use a source code control system, changes
> to them cannot be merged or tracked.
> - They can be a pain for localization departments, who have to recreate
> your setup in order to translate the screenshot.
>
> As with anything else, these are all just my opinions. In many situations,
> I think the benefits of screenshots outweigh the drawbacks. I have topics
> in my help system that are literally just a title and a screenshot :-)
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 12:08 AM, Erika Yanovich <ERIKA_y -at- rad -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > Users like to be reassured they got to the right screen after passing
> > through several other ones. I don't give screen captures of the
> > passing-through ones where the user just clicks something to get to
> > another screen, just of the final screen, where the actual work is done.
> > Erika
>
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> Learn more: http://bit.ly/WNaCzd
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STC Vice President Nicky Bleiel is giving a free webinar on best practices
for creating mobile help.
