And not only that - but notice how most of the page is eaten up by the image. A practice like this may usually be reserved for lifestyle-treatment articles in technology publishing (ala T3).
The international franchise of PC Magazine for instance has foregone the box-type layout scheme and has dedicated the front cover to usually just one image., styled to look less geeky. Technical manuals may be approaching the same treatment, out of necessity since consumers are assumed to be too excited to go through the thousand word documentation and would rather look at pictures.
I like the Apple manuals for another reason: they contain very little information. They deliberately contain just enough information to get you installed, started, and able to start programs and surf, but not much more than that. It is, however, enough.
Let's face it: when you get your new shiny toy home, you want to get your hands on it ASAP, not spend ages looking through the manual to find out where to plug the network cable in.
That is good technical writing: researching and understanding your audience, and limiting the scope of the documentation to address their needs, not to "sell" your product again.
Posted by: Mark M | June 12, 2006 6:16 AM | Permalink to Comment