Sure. We’ve been reducing word count in procedures for some time. It’s time to do more, however. As noted in an earlier post, we have to think mobile. Think small screens and small devices. Screen real estate on phones is at a premium.
With that in mind, I’m offering some suggestions on how to cut back. Remember that users are now quite computer-savvy. I don’t think we have to concern ourselves with the level of basic understanding as we did in years past. At this point, I think it’s safe to assume that most everyone has a mobile phone and is accustomed to navigating menus. The Cut and Cut More examples also remove the decision of directing users to either click or tap something to select an item.
Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to include all the bold type such as that shown in The Old Way example. Those would make the screen too busy, anyway. If you stand back and look at that example, what jumps out at you? Right – the bold type. The main item for each step. You can scan those steps and pull out what you need. When you strip out all the extra wording, you’re left with what was bold in the first place. So why not pull all the extraneous wording? Look at The Old Way bold items and look at the Cut More example. Notice anything? Aren’t they the same?
Update: November 23, 2010: I should have mentioned this before; my apologies to all who’ve commented so far. For this, I assume that the user has the screen and the help topic/page open. So they can see the tabs, buttons, and other items referenced in the help file. Thanks for the excellent points raised in the comments.
Update: December 19, 2016: When I initially wrote this back in 2011, mobile use was not as prevalent as today. Also, responsive design wasn’t yet in use. This was a way to reduce content on mobile screens. It’s still important to design content for a phone first, as mobile use continues to steadily increase. I think this approach is valid today, just as it was when I first wrote this.
The Old Way
1. Settings > Contacts Settings > Update Contact Information
2. Click the Permissions tab.
3. In the Access dropdown list, select Global.
4. Click Save Changes.
Cut
1. Settings > Contacts Settings > Update Contact Information
2. Tab: Permissions
3. Access: Global
4. Save Changes
Cut More
1. Settings > Contacts > Update
2. Permissions
3. Global
4. Save
In the Cut More example, you can see that I dropped some of the menu titles. I know that we’re supposed to write it exactly as it appears. However, if you can drop a word so only the main one remains, then go with it. (Contacts is the main term of Contacts Settings; is the Settings item really necessary? Of course, in such a case, a chat with the developers about a UI change might not hurt either.) It would be a judgement call every time. You’d have to see what other menu or screen items there are to ensure that there’s no confusion. If you can cut it though, do so.
I think that we could at least go with Cut or Cut More, or perhaps a combination of the two. Get out your scissors and get to work. Keep cutting until you get all the way down to the least common denominator (going back to the days when I had to break down fractions).
More
Twitter List: Create (Example)
Minimal Procedure Content: Reasoning
jgoldstein says
I question whether Cut or Cut More would work well for languages and cultures other than English. In fact, I’m not sure that Cut or Cut More work at all.
I don’t have any issues with minimalism, but I think your examples go too far. For example, in Cut More, step 2…there’s no context. There’s nothing that says what I’m supposed to do about Permissions. Look at it until it does something? Even in Cut, the procedure looks quite unclear. Access:Global means …what? If you’re not reading the help topic with the screen displayed, you have no idea that Access is a list and global is an option in that list.
If the UI is so intuitive that you don’t need words to explain it, why not just remove the help topic?
Jplaza says
I would have to agree with all of jgoldstein’s comments.
Again, a UI that works well wouldn’t need help topics.
Marie-Louise Flacke says
Cut and still localisation-friendly:
1. Settings->Contact Settings > update contact info
2. Click Permissions
3. Select Access-> Global
4. Click Save Changes
Any comment?
Karen Lowe says
The amount you cut will depend on your audience. I know computers, but I might not know the layout of this screen. Is this a non-obvious task? If the user is experienced in the screen and just needs a reminder, Cut and Cut More might work. For new users, it might confuse them. Too much cutting might eliminate the overall picture!
As far as help text – the sample suggested by Marie-Louise Flacke takes up about the same space, but avoids confusion. I also like its consistency.
Julie Norris says
Thanks to all of you for your comments. A note, which I should have mentioned up front: this assumes that the user has a screen open in front of them with the fields, buttons, and the like clearly visible. So they can look at the screen and the help file to see what to do.
JGoldstein and Jplaza – yes, I agree that an intuitive UI is preferred, and perhaps a help topic isn’t needed in some cases. That’s a great reason to try and get involved during the development of an application as much as possible.
Marie-Louise: I like your example. I think it would work. It’s certainly has fewer words than The Old Way, so I think that’s great. A suggestion I have is perhaps having a colon after the actions. That can break the step in such a way as to facilitate scanning. It separates the action from the screen item. For example:
1. Settings > Contact Settings > Update Contact Information
2. Click: Permissions
3. Select: Access > Global
4. Click: Save Changes
Karen – I think you’re right about audience. That always needs to be in mind. So I would just say to definitely keep that in mind. I just think that more and more, people are much more familiar with computers. I think it’s important for tech writers to gently lead everyone in a new direction. By now, I think that most know that a button with “OK” or “Save” on it means that they need to click it. So do we need to say click in the procedure? Or do they just need to know that it’s the next step, the next button they have to click?
Today, I’ve added some links to other posts on this same subject. (That’s another example: how about using More instead of Related Topics or something like that?) The last one (#tcchat transcripts) includes an example of what I’m calling Mobile Minimalism. It’s a version of Cut More. I assume in that procedure that the screen is open and people can clearly see the fields referenced. I believe that mobile devices are really going to affect the amount of text that’s written. Let’s get it down to just a few words if possible.
Thanks for your comments!
Patty Blount says
I think the Cut example is good; Cut More may be too ambiguous, depending on the app and the audience.
But I do agree with your underlying point – Windows just celebrated its 25th birthday. I don’t think we need to instruct users on basic usage, like ‘click’.
Julie Norris says
I just thought of something else. We really have to think about using Click and other mouse-related references. That’s because of so many touchscreens out there. If you Push, Touch, or Tap a button on a mobile device, the Click reference will be incorrect. It’s too limiting now. You don’t click anything on a phone. I think we really need to think about dropping the action if we can.