Re. Screen shots and context

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     To add to one of my previous postings, in which I noted that
     screenshots should contain "as much context as necessary, but no
     more":

     Rebecca Filardo noted that she used full-screen shots when location is
     important, and highlighted only the relevant parts. This is perfectly
     appropriate. If you've got lots of active areas of the screen, and
     users need to choose among these areas, you have little choice but to
     provide the full navigational data: where is each part in relation to
     the whole.

     On the other hand, Karen Kay noted that tiny images of icons or menus
     taken out of context frustrate her. Agreed. An icon by itself,
     extracted from its toolbar, is meaningless... you have to hunt through
     the entire toolbar to find it, and this can be a chore in most
     programs that have extensive toolbars. The solution? Provide an image
     of the entire toolbar, with only the relevant icon highlighted. (This
     follows Rebecca's suggestion of highlighting what is relevant, in the
     context of information that shows where the relevant information
     occurs.) Similarly, for menus, show not just the menu title and the
     dropdown choices beneath it... show one or two of the adjacent menu
     choices, or show the entire menu bar (spread it across the width of
     your page or column, depending on your layout). Don't show the entire
     screen, and don't show the menu choices in adjacent menus: the menu
     bar itself provides the context (where do I find the particular menu I
     need to use), the dropdown provides the specifics. Voila! "As much as
     you need, but no more."

     --Geoff Hart   geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
     #8^{)}