MINIMALIST COMPUTER DOCUMENTATION - Universiteit Twente

THE MINIMAL MANUAL: IS LESS REALLY MORE?
WordPerfect manual uses the menu approach because it closely resembles the
methods that are used to execute other commands.
According to their learning preferences (see chapter 1), new users typically
have a strong desire to act. The minimal manual supports this desire by giving
users the opportunity to act early on. It emphasizes the procedural part of a
program, leaving out all information that does not directly relate to 'doing
things'. Minimal manuals therefore have no preface, long-winded introduction,
or general description of how the program works. Rather, they give users the
opportunity to act early on. In the WordPerfect manual users receive their first
instructions to act on page 2. In contrast, a brief inventory of commercially
available tutorials for WordPerfect shows that the first instruction normally
appears around page 15 (Van der Meij & Carroll, in press).
The minimal manual also supports learning by thinking. It invites and even
stimulates users to explore new aspects of the program. Following from the
GE-training materials, this principle has frequently been interpreted as a plea
for leaving out basic action information. This is a mistake, however. All the
necessary action steps for performing a task are described in a minimal
manual. Instead, exploration is encouraged in open-ended exercises and in socalled
'do it yourself' sections. In both instances, the minimal manual
explicitly relates explorations to a larger framework of goals and methods. In
a way, it guides the users exploratory behavior, thus providing an exploratory
environment in which it is safe to experiment with the program and try things
out on your own (see Appendix 2).
As the fifth design principle indicates, minimalist instruction is always
anchored, or situated, in the underlying task domain. That is, minimalist
training tasks are real and familiar to the target population. The users' interest
in and understanding of these tasks is what incited them to learn to use the
program in the first place. By designing instruction around these tasks, new
users' learning preferences are met and, consequently, their motivation is
sustained. In Carroll's minimal manual tasks addressed genuine clerical
activities. Trainees were secretaries who, like in their daily work, were asked
to type short memos, revise letters, and create press reports. In the WordPerfect
manual users (i.e., students) had to perform tasks like typing a short
invitation, revising the minutes of a member's meeting, and changing the layout
of a complaint to a telephone company. In contrast, most commercially
developed word processing tutorials expect users to type a full-page sample
text on fictitious topics like wine-producing countries (Mincberg, 1988), an
overview of bookkeeping (Mincberg, 1987), or an incorrect delivery of 10,000
video tapes (Boom, 1990).
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