Why You Must Add Graphics in Step-By-Step Guide
Most of the software applications or products are complex. They are neither easy to use nor self-explaining. Hence users need a help guide to correctly use the applications or products.
The best way to document an application or product is to write, step-by-step instructions, on how to use a product or application.
When you write a step-by-step guide, make sure that you:
1. Describe each action
2. Number each action, as a step.
3. Number all the sub-actions (sub-steps) within the main action (step).
4. Add a note wherever necessary to point out an exception or important point about a particular action. Provide a unique identifier number to each note if you want to reference it in the Table of Content (TOC).
5. Write instructions in a two-column format, displaying the screenshot alongside the relevant step-by-step instructions.
6. Hyperlink important terms in the step-by-step instructions to the glossary and FAQs so that user completely understands what he or she will achieve through that particular action.
Last but not least; maintain consistency throughout the documentation. If you intend to put alphabet or Roman numerical for a sub-step, ensure you follow the same protocol throughout the entire guide.
Having said that, would it be right to say that implementing all the above-mentioned steps in the textual-only format would guarantee a perfect guide that correctly explains the product or service?
I would say NO. It won’t be enough. You must provide graphics to support the text.
Graphics are diagrams, flowcharts, tables, screenshots, photographs, icons, and other visual representation. They help improve the quality of a technical document in the following ways.
1. Speed up the understanding of the complex technical subject.
2. Remove any doubts due to imagination gap that may arise about a product, application or service because of text-only explanation
3. Enhance document’s visual appeal and thus improve the reader’s concentration on its message.
4. Convey information to the readers who do not share a common language with writers.
Graphics improve readers' comprehensibility. Use them to show:
1. How a product looks.
2. Users to do something. For example, explain a process or how to use a product
3. How something is constructed.
4. Complex data in an easy to understand and useful manner. For example, data in tabular format
5. Message through icons to readers with different language background or reading disability.
6. Trends or other numerical relationships through line graphs, pie-charts, bar graphs, etc.
Add Screenshots
Adding screenshots to step-by-step text speeds up understanding. Prevents imagination gap due to the absence of a visual clue and does not leave readers guessing or having to jump to an application to check out. Everything is there in front of them to see, read and understand. This type of presentation helps readers to quickly grasp complex information in a shorter attention span than what they would need for a text-only document.
Readers tend to scan through the information most of the time, hence visual clues like screenshots or images are the best way to share maximum information supported with detailed text.
Embed Videos
Videos are always in high demand. You make short videos that demonstrate the workflows and use along with screenshots to explain the product better. Though videos take more time to develop and cost more than embedding screenshots in the help guide, they are worth it because in the end-user experience matters.
Conclusion
If a picture is worth a 1000 words and a video is worth 1.8 million words, then it is a good idea to include them in your step-by-step guide.
Technical Writer | API Docs | Agile | AI | DITA | SaaS // I create technical content that accelerates adoption, enhances usability, and improves developer experience.
5 年During the last decade or so, the thinking about screenshots and video has shifted somewhat. For non-native English speakers reading instructions written in English, screenshots can be useful. However, many organisations have decided to limit the use of screenshots in user documentation (or even remove them completely) because there can be enormous overhead associated with keeping UI screenshots in sync with UIs. This issue can become acute if a UI is changing frequently. Given the fact too that many software vendors are now using iterative product development methodologies, which usually result in shorter and faster release cycles, or even continuous delivery, many tech writers now don't have the time to check and recapture screenshots between releases.? Equally, the increased emphasis on UX and good UI design and the move towards mobile devices can mean that screenshots are not as necessary as they used to be - and might even be inappropriate or redundant. Increasingly, a lot of tech writers working on user assistance for GUIs spend more time on optimising UI text and implementing progressive disclosure. In relation to video for tech communication, I think that there has been reset during the last seven years. Around 2010-2011, it seemed for a while that videos created with Camtasia or Captivate were taking over user assistance. However, some software vendors that went this route made some mistakes, such as using? video to replace large amounts of written content, such as instructions. This irritated many users because it forced them to wade through videos to find the answers to their questions. Video can still be? a powerful teaching tool but I reckon that many software vendors regard it as a complementary medium that is usually subordinate to traditional text and graphics,