Reference vs. Learning: pick ONE
When writing content, you must decide if it is reference or instructional information ...
"The difference between facts and information is straightforward: information organizes facts into a meaningful pattern. Without information, data and facts can be arbitrary and useless. There's a crucial place for reference information, and information architecture is art + science. (Two info architect bloggers are Louis Rosenfield and Jesse James Garrett, both who've written books.) Turning facts and data into meaningful information is--for a lot of books, websites, and manuals--often the destination. The thing the users want.
The big problems happen when the user wants and needs knowledge and understanding but gets only information. If information is a meaningful, useful organization of fact and data, understanding is about knowing how--and more importantly why--to apply that information to do something creative.
Our advice to our authors is: "You MUST choose one, and you must commit body and soul and keyboard to doing that one single thing--either reference (data and information) or learning (knowledge and understanding), while letting go of the other. Accept that you can't meet both goals, and that most of your readers don't have both goals, and figure out the best way to satisfy that one goal."" continued ... (Via Creating Passionate Users)
"The difference between facts and information is straightforward: information organizes facts into a meaningful pattern. Without information, data and facts can be arbitrary and useless. There's a crucial place for reference information, and information architecture is art + science. (Two info architect bloggers are Louis Rosenfield and Jesse James Garrett, both who've written books.) Turning facts and data into meaningful information is--for a lot of books, websites, and manuals--often the destination. The thing the users want.
The big problems happen when the user wants and needs knowledge and understanding but gets only information. If information is a meaningful, useful organization of fact and data, understanding is about knowing how--and more importantly why--to apply that information to do something creative.
Our advice to our authors is: "You MUST choose one, and you must commit body and soul and keyboard to doing that one single thing--either reference (data and information) or learning (knowledge and understanding), while letting go of the other. Accept that you can't meet both goals, and that most of your readers don't have both goals, and figure out the best way to satisfy that one goal."" continued ... (Via Creating Passionate Users)
Get the facts straight.
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