Don’t Shy Away From Opportunity To Teach
Re: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3825122
A few weeks ago I responded to a comment on Hacker News, where one of the authors of Meteor was thinking of removing the term REST from their website - in fear that it would be confusing to new developers.
This was my response, ”Don’t shy away from opportunity to teach. Just make sure you show it as a link, perhaps that means a simple popover explaining in simple terms what REST means.”
Minimalism isn’t just something done for the sake of doing it. The idea is to take away as much as possible while allowing the product to still be useful. However, some people are worried about minimalism to too severe of a degree.
There’s simplification that’s good, and simplification that’s bad. You have to analyze each situation to see if it’s fitting.
Is your goal 100% retention (unattainable) or educating people and making life easier (likely to increase retention)?
If someone is already on your page they likely have interest in what the page is about. It does depend on the type of content being viewed mind you, however more likely than not the reader, if in the mindset, is willing to learn. I suppose if your target aren’t people you want to educate or that want to learn, then you can probably create a long-form high-sell marketing pages will likely be an effective way to communicate to those non-thinkers.
