Definition

Conceptual information explains ideas to a reader. Examples include:

• Functional descriptions

• Terminology

• Scenarios

• Abstractions

Purpose

Writers include conceptual information for several reasons:

• Provide supporting information for tasks

• Define terminology

• Furnish context

• Increase understanding

Role in product content

Concept topics support tasks in information domains where tasks can be concretely described. Concept topics assume more importance in information domains where readers must synthesize tasks to accomplish their goals. For example, an API guide for a product would not lend itself to task-oriented documentation. In this case, the content would have to furnish enough concept and reference information so that the reader would have enough background to synthesize tasks.

Concept types

A Description concept provides background information that users must know before they can successfully work with a product or interface.

A type of description concept is a process, which will be presented in an ordered list. It’s a concept rather than a task because, while events are taking place in a sequence, the user is not performing actions. For example, a series of functions that the system performs would be considered a process but a high-level set of steps that a user performs would be a task.

Concept topic templates

The Concept.dita template is available in SDL repository for concept topics.