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I think the appendix idea is the way to go IF the new material is an
addition to what's already there. But if it's just a change to something
the user has already seen, you should keep the current organization and
edit the content to replace the old content with the new. You want the
manual to be usable, and for that it must be easy for the user to look up
what he wants to know. The fewer changes in the manual organization, the
easier it is for him.
On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 4:27 PM, Lippincott, Richard
<RLippincott -at- as-e -dot- com>wrote:
> I'm fighting a battle for about the fourth or fifth time here, and I could
> use some studies or documentation to support my point.
>
> To make a long story short (and those of you who know me know how
> difficult this is), we're using printed manuals because that's what the
> customers prefer. When we roll out a variation of a product, if the
> variation is significant enough to change the operator's workflow or
> significantly changes the GUI, I issue a new manual (new part number) keyed
> to that product variation.
>
> There is a program manager here who feels that the best way to handle
> these variations is to stick an appendix or addendum at the end of the
> baseline manual, and let the user flip pages. (The actual truth, which he
> has admitted, is that if we only had one manual to cover all of the product
> variations, his paperwork level would be smaller and he would prefer that.)
>
> I'm sure that someone has done some scholarly work analyzing reductions in
> usability and readability when new data is shoved into an appendix, and
> perhaps even the impact on safety.
>
> Can anyone point me in the right direction?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rick Lippincott, Technical Writer
> American Science and Engineering, Inc. | www.as-e.com
> 829 Middlesex Turnpike | Billerica, MA 01821 USA | Fax +1-978-262-8702
> Office +1-978-262-8807 | rlippincott -at- as-e -dot- com
>
>
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