Motivating end users to read the user manual

[Stuart Rogers]

Mike Wickham wrote:
>> When making diagrams and inserting pictures, I would suggest using some 
>> colors. Colors
>> definitely add to the visual appeal. A colorful manual is definitely going 
>> to catch the user
>> attention. What say?
> 
> Color type, though, (example: color headlines) can have a severely negative 
> effect on reader comprehension, according to the studies in Colin Wheildon's 
> _Type and Layout_. His study showed 70% "good" comprehension with black 
> type, compared to only 10% good comprehension for high-chroma color type. 
> It's a nice book that covers studies of the effects on comprehension of 
> serif vs. sans serif type, reverse type, color type, bold vs. italic, 
> justification and more. The book is a good read, available at Amazon:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Type-Layout-Communicating-Making-Pretty/dp/1875750223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242936596&sr=1-1
> 
> Mike Wickham
> 


Wheildon's book is rather narrowly addressed to advertisers who 
typically need to get a reader's attention in the split second they flip 
the pages of a magazine.  I don't think it's valid to extrapolate his 
conclusions to book length technical documents.  (And to read some of 
the comments on the Amazon pages -- 
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1SUFVT71QXL6V/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
-- for example, his conclusions may not be valid to begin with anyway.)


Scattering a few grains of salt...  ;-)

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

"Ah, but a man's screech should exceed his rasp, or what's a violin for?"

--with apologies to Robert Browning and the people next door