Minimalist Design for Documentation
The minimalist design model holds that computer users learn more efficiently and use products more successfully by working more with the product and less with the documentation. Developed by Dr. John Carroll, the minimalist model is the subject of many papers in the human factors and documentation fields.
The principles of minimalist design can be applied to complex technical documentation as well as to introductory training materials. Minimalist design focuses on:
- Reducing expository text
- Creating modules or chunks that can be used in any order
- Expecting user errors and providing recovery tips
- Concentrating on the user's own tasks
What Users Do that Traditional Documentation Ignores
Traditional documentation assumes that computer users approach learning in a structured, linear way. Instead, researchers in human learning have found that people:
- Start using introductory material as instruction and try to apply it to their situation without first “getting the big picture.”
- Skip over material, skip around among several manuals, and construct their own instructional procedures on the fly.
- Infer from prior knowledge and then draw the wrong conclusions and form the wrong mental models to explain product or system behavior.
- Often make the same error over and over -- and often do not realize they are making an error.
How Minimalist Documentation Accommodates People’s Natural Behavior
Minimalist documentation assumes that the user will not follow a predictable sequence, will not read every word, and will start acting on the information in very little time. To transfer knowledge to the impatient user, minimalist documentation:
- Is designed based on a deep understanding of the user’s actual tasks, gained through user interviews and other field research techniques.
- Provides information in well-labeled chunks that can be read in almost any order. Choosing appropriate labels for information chunks requires an understanding of the user’s vocabulary gained through user interviews and other information architecture techniques.
- Shortens procedures to essential steps and provides easy access to supporting concepts and explanations.
- Structures long procedures into shorter, interrelated procedures so that the user can achieve intermediate levels of accomplishment and stay motivated.
Steps for Designing Successful Minimalist Documentation
- Perform content analysis to determine which information will be frequently used or mission critical and which will be needed only occasionally. Note that while minimalist training may present only 60% of the functionality of a product or system, minimalist documentation may need to describe 100% of the functionality. However, the key to a minimalist presentation is to place essential topics at the top of the hierarchy and less frequently used or less important topics deeper in the hierarchy.
- Interview representative users to learn what tasks they perform, what information they need to perform their tasks, what terminology they use to describe their tasks, and what prior experience and mental models they apply to the product or system behavior.
- Build a skeletal prototype of the documentation and perform a usability walkthrough of the prototype with users and developers.
- Modify the structure and build the content to create a draft for review and usability testing. Learn from usability testing what keywords users are seeking when looking for information, how easily they navigate from procedural to conceptual information, and what errors they make with the product or system that the documentation should anticipate.
- Use the feedback from content review and usability testing to improve the documentation before release.
