Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How do you explain the details of something technical to a non-technical audience?

While there are strategies such as the use of analogy and simplified language that can help somewhat, the real issue is that a non-technical audience is non-technical (for a given domain) because t...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:56Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33503
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:02:35Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33503
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:02:35Z (almost 5 years ago)
While there are strategies such as the use of analogy and simplified language that can help somewhat, the real issue is that a non-technical audience is non-technical (for a given domain) because they are not interested in the details of that domain.

We are all technical in some domain or another, and none of us has the interest or the capacity to be interested in every domain of life. Our highly mechanized and organized society is based on hiding as much of the technical detail of every aspect of life from people as you possibly can. You don't want to see how the sausage is made, not just because it is icky, but because if you want affordable safe sausages, you should stick to what you do best and leave the sausage making to the experts.

So, unless you are writing learning material for people who actually want to become technical in a given area, you should be worrying less about how to convey the details and more focussing on hiding the details as much as you can.

The aim of technical communication is to give people the confidence to act correctly. Throwing a bunch of information at people that they only half understand and don't really care about is not a recipe for building their confidence. So ask yourself, how little do people actually have to know in order to act correctly and with confidence. The less you can tell them, the better.

Forcing people to be more technical in order to use your product or service simply means making that product or service harder to use. Don't focus on how to explain the details. Focus on how to conceal as many of the details as you possibly can while still allowing people to act correctly and with confidence. Every detail you add after that will reduce, not enhance, the effectiveness of your documentation.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-01-23T19:31:10Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 4