Minimalism in technical documentation states that we should only deliver info that the user needs. But how can we know what each individual user already knows (and does not need)? The answer is: we cannot. And this is why we should use progressive disclosure techniques to optimize the help we offer to our customers, so that each individual customer can decide for himself whether more info is needed or not, and on which aspects more info is needed.
There is one important catch: Implementing progressive disclosure can be a lot of work and be too costly to do. The solution to this budgetary problem is to use a well-defined structure in your content (preferably DITA) and an XSLT that automatically adds the required hooks and handles (triggers and targets) to make progressive disclosure work.
2. who is talking ?
• Jang F.M. Graat
• 25+ years in Tech Comm
• FM, RH, oXygen
• DITA, XSLT, JS, CSS
• Minimalist
• Psychology, Philosophy
• Dutch world citizen
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20. UA meets UX meets UG
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GUI and UA design go hand in hand
21. Wikipedia:
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"Progressive disclosure is an
interaction design technique often
used in human computer interaction
to help maintain the focus of a user's
attention by reducing clutter,
confusion, and cognitive workload.
This improves usability by
presenting only the minimum data
required for the task at hand."
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31. styling and wording
create expectations
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for more information click here.
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more information
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more information:
+ security settings
+ firewall options
+ privacy protection
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import/export options