Glossary · 3 · Tasks and minimalism
Action orientation
Also known as: Action-oriented approach, Action-oriented documentation
German: Handlungsorientierung
In technical communication, action orientation is the principle of minimalist and task-based documentation that lets users act on real tasks as early as possible and organizes the information around the actions they take and the results those actions produce, rather than around the product’s features or a body of knowledge to be studied first.
- Minimalism
- Documentation models
- Tasks
In one sentence
Action orientation lets users act on real tasks early and organizes documentation around actions and their results, a principle of minimalism.
Example
Instead of opening with three pages on the menu structure of a labeling station, the instruction starts with “Load a new label roll”: the first step can be done at once, and each step states what the operator should see afterward.
How it applies
- Origin: Action orientation is the first of the four principles of minimalist instruction that Hans van der Meij and John M. Carroll formulated in 1995 and revised in Minimalism beyond the Nurnberg Funnel (1998): choose an action-oriented approach, anchor the tool in the task domain, support error recognition and recovery, and support reading to do, study and locate. Its heuristics include giving the user an immediate opportunity to act and respecting the integrity of the user’s activity. The principle goes back to Carroll’s observation, reported in The Nurnberg Funnel (1990), that new users of software start acting before they have read the documentation.
- In documentation practice: Headings name goals (“Replace the filter cartridge”), procedures begin with the first action, and each step is followed by its result so the reader can confirm progress. Conceptual background is linked from the task instead of placed in front of it.
- Machinery and devices: In operating and maintenance instructions, action orientation shapes the order of the content but never its completeness. Safety-related information, warnings at the steps where a hazard arises and other information required for use stay in the instructions; see Information for use and Warning message.
- Software: Getting-started guides and in-product help apply the principle by letting users complete a small real task within the first minutes.
Action orientation vs. feature orientation
Feature-oriented documentation describes each function, menu or screen of a product in turn. Action-oriented documentation selects and orders content by what the user wants to get done; functions that support no identified task receive little description. Most documentation sets combine both: tasks lead, reference content describes features.
External references
- Hans van der Meij and John M. Carroll, “Principles and Heuristics for Designing Minimalist Instruction,” in Minimalism beyond the Nurnberg Funnel (MIT Press, 1998): https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4616.003.0003
- John M. Carroll (ed.), Minimalism beyond the Nurnberg Funnel (MIT Press, 1998): https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4616.001.0001