The following are some tips for creating relevant content in our content model:
-
Identify user goals and validate them with your users
-
Keep the sentences simple that your user can read once and understand
-
Trim the fat:
-
Use active voice—find the true subject and verb to improve clarity
-
Remove unnecessary adjectives and adverbs
-
Remove redundancy
-
Use one word instead of many
-
Rewrite and restructure existing content as it transitions to XML to remove unnecessary content
-
Remove “glue” text:
-
No transitional text between topics
-
No mini TOCs at the start of components, unless required for context-sensitive help
-
No stem sentences in tasks
-
Eliminate unneeded introductory explanations. Write only the overviews that users need
-
Do not explain what’s obvious
-
Do not present the entire screen image, crop the required portion of the image
-
If there are more than one way, explain the most common way
-
Layer the information for different users (progressive disclosure)
