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Subject:Re: Minimalist Document Design From:Shannon Ford <shannon -at- UNIFACE -dot- NL> Date:Thu, 4 Nov 1993 17:28:31 +0100
From Janie Bergen:
> This type of design [minimalist documentation design]seems to go against
> all the principles I was taught. Do many of you technical writers
> use this design? Can anyone cite some examples that I might look
> at?
The only examples/research I've seen were in John Carroll's Book, _The
Nurnberg Funnel, Designing Minimalist Instruction for Practical Computer Skill_,
ISBN 0-262-03163-9, 1990 MIT Press. The method intrigued me, so now I'm trying
to put some of the principles into practice in a tutorial and a training course
I'm working on (starting, actually).
It does go against what I was taught in technical writing classes, but not
what I've read about learning and human motivation, and certainly not against
what I've experienced as a user of tutorials and documentation.
Anyway, that's my motivation for trying it, and I expect to do some testing
to see if it works or not.
Like Janie, I would also be interested in hearing any first-hand accounts from
people who have tried writing this way.
