Keeping It Stupidly Simple

Everyone has heard the old adage about the "KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid". Easy to say, easy to remember, but often hard to do. At least, hard to do well. When we simplify our language, it often comes across as patronising, dumbed-down, or just plain rude. So how should Stupid keep it simple, without making it stupidly simple?

Consider the sentence:

"Insert the writable media into the optical disk drive."

It's not horribly bad as it stands, but it could be made simpler. Here's one version:

Open the disk drawer by pressing the button on the front of the drawer. Place the CD into the tray with the label facing upwards. Close the drawer by pressing the button again. Do not force the drawer closed."

Well, it's simpler. We've lost some of the more easily-confused terms such as "writable media" and"optical disk drive", replacing them with more common and regular words. We've given more specific instructions about the actual process of performing the task, which can help with understanding, and also give users more information about troubleshooting. This would be great for a manual that is introducing people to computers for the first time.

But what if I were to tell you that this instruction is to go into a Developer's Guide, that is, a book read and used by software developers? All of a sudden, the new version of this sentence has become horribly patronising. It is safe to assume that a software developer has opened a disk drawer once or twice before, and probably doesn't need to be given explicit instructions about where to find the button. They probably also understand the terms "writable media" and "optical disk drive". So we're back to where we started from. How do we simplify the sentence for this audience without speaking down to the audience?

Think about what the sentence is trying to convey. How would you explain this to someone who is sitting across the table from you? Imagine you have a friend who is a software developer. You go around to their house, and they ask you a question about this product you're working on the manual for. How would you explain it to them? If they said "what do I do now?" would you respond by handing them a CD and saying "Insert the writable media into the optical disk drive"? Probably not. I can just about guarantee that you would say something more like this:

Put the CD into the disk drive

So there's your answer. It's not patronising, it's not too complicated. It uses terms that everyone is familiar with, and isn't couched in lengthy words and stuffy language. It gives all the information the user needs, and isn't drowning in information we can safely assume they already know.

The problem, of course, is that keeping it simple is not always simple. Corporate language is increasingly creeping into the everyday. Keeping it out of technical documentation is becoming increasingly difficult. Of course, if the product you are documenting is called a "Synergy Manipulation Process Leveraging Suite" there's not much you can do about that. You can, however, ensure that you give information about the product in plain language. Explain what it does (other than leverage synergies!), explain how to use it. Try standing up and reading your text out loud. Try explaining the processes and concepts to a friend and take note of the language you use. Look at each individual word and think "is there a simpler word that I can use here?". Keep your sentences short and to the point. Avoid repetition unless it is absolutely necessary.

Just yesterday, to give a real-world example, I saw a blog-post titled "Marketing Leaders Should Help Create the Next Generation of Australian Multi-Channel Retail". Now, I don't even know what that means (and surely it needs another noun on the end ... "retail what"?). I clicked on the link, and read the first sentence, trying to work out if it was something I might be interested in, and saw whole sentences full of nothing but corporate-speak. Needless to say, I didn't read any more. And therein lies a valuable lesson - write for your audience, but never write for the sake of putting words on paper. Even if your audience is a group of corporate-types in suits, who live and breathe corporate-speak, don't write an empty document, filled with empty words. Make sure you have something to say, and then say it as simply and as accurately as possible.

The pictured quotes on this page have come courtesy of Andrew Davidson's wonderful Corporate Gibberish Generator


This blog post has been cross-posted to Professional Open Source Documentation