this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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[โ€“] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's much better.

Personally I detest not understanding what's going on when following a guide to do something, so I really dislike recipe style.

That said, I mentioned recipes because recipes meant to be blindly followed are the style of guide which has the lowest possible "required expertise level" of all.

I supposed a playbook properly done (i.e. a dumbed down set by step "do this" guide but with side annotations which are clearly optional reading, explaining what's going on for those who have the higher expertise levels needed to understand them) can have as low a "required expertise level" as just a plain recipe whilst being a much nicer option because people who know a bit more can get more from it that they could from just a dumbed down recipe.

That said, it has to be structured so that it's really clear that those "explanation bits" are optional reading for the curious which have the knowhow to understand them, otherwise it risks scaring less skilled people who would actually be able to successfully do the taks by blindly following the step-by-step recipe part of it.

[โ€“] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago

That said, it has to be structured so that it's really clear that those "explanation bits" are optional reading for the curious which have the knowhow to understand them

Yep, totally. This past year I spent a lot of time setting up an LMS with content.
I included sections that were tips, good to know, for awareness, etc.

Maybe only 1 out of every 20 users might expand the section, but if they do then there is a clear explanation of why this particular thing functions this way and how to make it work in alternate usecases. Images and explanation, before and after, etc.