Re: B&W or Colour

[Alexia Prendergast <alexiap -at- SEAGATESOFTWARE -dot- COM>]

Color is used extensively in our products (network/storage admin
applications) to show states, etc. Cost was an issue ;-), so we moved
from hardcopy B&W docs to online docs, so folks can see the colors,
etc. From the money we saved by doing online docs, we are planning on
doing a 2-color hardcopy planning and installation guide and a 4-color
quick-ref card.

Of course, as always, you should make sure your customers
want online stuff before you go that direction -- our users are
used to using online docs, so it wasn't a problem. In fact, we
moved to online docs more because of user demand rather than
cost.

A.

--
Alexia Prendergast
Senior Technical Writer
Seagate Software
mailto:alexiap -at- sems -dot- com

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Leslie McKendry-Smith [SMTP:McKendrySmith -at- MBNET -dot- MB -dot- CA]
>Sent:  Friday, September 05, 1997 10:55 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       B&W or Colour
>[AP]  ...
>My client is toying with the idea of print the entire manual
>in colour (Cost is not an issue.) but, both of us are unsure
>of whether this is a good idea.
>
>On the positive side, I think that colour printing would
>demonstrate how colour is used to in the application.
>
>On the negative side, I worry that page after page of colour
>graphics would distract readers and after a while lose its
>impact.
>
>What do you think?  Are there other advantages or
>disadvantages?  Does anyone know of any usability research
>results on using colour in user's guides.
>[AP]  ...

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