Minimalism-can you have too much of a good thing?

Abstract

Technical documentation has a reputation for being large, dense, and cumbersome. Methods and tools for simplifying documentation have been available for some time, but haven't taken off like wildfire. Minimalism advocates a streamlined, action-oriented approach that removes descriptive filler material and gets the user acting quickly. A method developed in my organization claims to produce streamlined, action-oriented material, but actually takes information to a level that makes minimalism look verbose. The paper compares minimalism to the author's organization's method and discusses how one can benefit from minimalist ideas.