Documentation that drains willpower

A must-read article, Your App Makes Me Fat — Serious Pony, describes how cognitive taxation affects willpower. Although primarily a plea for simpler to use apps, the same logic applies to documentation, too. If the tenet that documentation is used only as a last resort is true, then your readers are already drained when they come to what you've written. Will your complex help system and overly-long instructions bleed the last of their rational mind, or will it solve their problem so they can recharge?

Posted: August 11, 2013 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item